Star Ocean 3: To Another Space
by EM-K19
Summary: A SO3 Sequel. 2 years after the events of SO3, Fayt and Maria have mysteriously gone missing. Meanwhile, Albel and Clair are assigned to work together in investigating the uprising of the Demons in Elicoor II. Story will uncover the truth of Albel's past.
1. Part 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3

STAR OCEAN 3: TO ANOTHER SPACE

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean 3. **

**Chapter 1: The Audience**

_Everything seemed hazy for Albel. He was among Fayt, Maria, and rest of the crew, while people such as Vox, Crosell, and Luther stood in front of him. Suddenly, they all burst in spontaneous blast of flame, and Surroundings changed. Lot of soldiers were around him… as well as lot of dragons. Along with a man…_

"_fa… father?" Albel asked. _

_Suddenly, a blast of fire destroyed all the soldiers and Albel felt a sharp pain in his arm…_

"AHHH!.." Albel shouted as he woke up, sweating in his bed.

"shoot, another annoying dream…" Albel sighed. He looked at his metal arm, which was burned off many years ago. However, in that dream he just had, he could literally feel that same pain in his arm. But… how could he feel that pain when his real arm no longer existed and was replaced with a metal arm? It was surreal… As Albel was pondering, somebody knocked on the door.

"Captain!" The maid said. "The King has summoned you… it looks like we have a response from the investigation crew. You have been asked to attend to the throne immediately!"

"Hmm… it's about time for a response… took those maggots long enough" Albel said as he walked out the door and to the throne room.

In the Airyglyph castle, not much had changed. It had expanded to accommodate for less military and more social departments, as war was no longer of a primary concern after Vox had perished and the events against the invaders 2 years ago. But the military was still solid as ever, with Albel assuming the position of the Dragon Brigade as well. Albel had not been in too much action lately, however. It was the time of peace, and there wasn't much for Albel to attend to except for administrative issues, which he absolutely lothed. He hated peace and was longing for action. However, it seemed that things were changing… Albel was thinking that he would be in action soon, but it seemed that investigative crew had finished their work. Disappointed, Albel stepped into the room.

"I'm here, sire. I heard that we have a response from the investigation team?" Albel asked as he attended to the king.

"Actually Albel, we do not have a response; that's exactly why I called you here" King said. "It's been two days now, and I expected them to be back by now. This is of a great concern… there have been more reports of Demons rising in Kirlsa caverns, as well as the basements of this castle. Reports of the same are also coming from Aquaria".

"Those soldiers we sent as the investigation team were all of great skill" Woltar said, standing beside the King as always. "Something must have happen to them. The King is ordering you to check out the scenes, boy. Ready yourself for possible battle".

"These demons seem to be of great power. You must be careful and be ready for anything, Albel. You are a great asset to the kingdom and we cannot afford to lose you. Take all precautions". King said.

"I know you've been out of action for past few years, boy…" Woltar said. "While I definitely do not doubt your skill, you must not get arrogant. Watch yourself at all times".

"Hmph, don't worry about me, old man" Albel extorted. "I haven't been just sitting back and not doing anything, you know. I've kept up with my training, and even if I didn't. It doesn't matter. There is nobody that can match my skills in this boring land. Everything is weak."

"Remember that these beings may NOT be of this world" Woltar answered. "remember what happened two years ago, boy. You were humbled by those out of this world, who also soon became your comrades."

"Stop it old man!" Albel shouted. "I underestimated them. Had I been more careful, those maggots would have had no chance."

"That's exactly what I am saying. Don't underestimate anything, Albel." The king said.

"…" Albel ran out of things to say. "Alright, I'll be on my way now", He said as he turned back and walked away.

"Good luck to you" King said.

* * *

"First you have to get to the basement of the castle near the jail, and on one of the cells there will be a secret entrance through the floor." The soldier told Albel. "Through that entrance, you will be able to reach the ancient dungeon of Airyglyph. "Take care".

"No need to worry, maggot" Albel said as he walked past the man without even looking at him.

Through the Airyglyph basement Jail where Fayt and Cliff were once held in, and also Albel himself as well at one time, he dropped down the secret entrance through the manhole hidden on the floors in one of the cells. Albel's only heard about it once – that it was created to be the secret hideout for the King for the emergencies… but this was the first time he was there in person.

"Hmph! Who'd have known there was a place like this in the dungeons underneath the castle…" Albel said to himself. "The elite investigative team hasn't come back... Did they fight over credit, or goof up... I didn't think they'd have any problem with this mission... I guess I expected too much from them. They may be useless, good-for-nothing worms, but I guess I'd better at least recover their corpses..."

As he walked down the halls, one sewer monster attacked him from up above. Albel, already seeing this coming with his sixth sense, dodged the claw attack of the monster easily. Without much effort, Albel made a quick, sharp thrust with his Crimson Scourge and the monster was helplessly cut in half. "Hmph…. Same old weak worms. There is absolutely no challenge in this land. Don't tell me the investigation team lost to THESE bunch of worms…" Albel said as he sighed.

But suddenly, he felt a chilling power ahead of him. A power he hasn't felt for over two years… Albel flinched and looked up sharply… to look at apparently nothing.

"Heh... Another guest. First six, then one. Foolish bravery... Or is it recklessness?" A gentle, yet deep voice echoed throughout the dungeon. Out of thin air, a being appeared in front of Albel. He had a pale face, and not-so-physical built. He had no emotion emitting from him but yet was also filled with confidence at the same time.

"You look like something of a fighter, but you are still a man of this world. You are no match for me." The Zombish man told Albel. "It would be best for you if you just went home peacefully. Or would you prefer to become another one of my mute servants, like those who came before?"

"Hohoooh, so YOU'RE the cause of all the problems…" Albel said, glaring cockily at the figure.

"And what if I was?" the Devilish figure asked.

"Don't expect to die painlessly. I'll smash your face until you're begging me to kill you and get it over with." Albel said as he sneered at the man.

"Hehehe… you're a brave one. However…" the man said as he disappeared, and reappeared further back in the dungeon. "I'm Romero, a servant of the gods. Do you really think I would sully myself by fighting with a lowly mortal organism like yourself? Korima, Raxa, Mizua, Sazka... Come out, my servants…"

Romero's servants appeared in the scene, who were zombified, and in great pain. "co…co… commanderrrr!" one servant cried. "ka.. ka..kaaaaa!"

"What the… Bah! You scum!" Albel yelled in disgust.

"You, who were abandoned by the gods you served, and left behind on this land... May I, in my great kindness, extend a special hand of charity to you, and retrieve you as my own?" Romero asked.

How did he know about that? Albel wondered. However, that though quickly disappeared from Albel's mind as the servants inched closer. "Look what's happened to you, fools! Think of your place!" Albel yelled to Romero's servants.

"Ah, how terribly unfortunate... Very well, it is time for you to burn in eternal despair!" Romero said as he snapped his fingers. At his command, his servants dashed at Albel ferociously.

Albel was surprised at how much quicker and stronger these 'servants' have become. Still, they weren't fast enough; Albel dodged all the swipes from the hands of the servants and slid out of the harm's way. But before he could do anything else, one servant yelled "fi..fii…fire.. BOLTTTT!" A ball of fire headed towards Albel as it exploded on impact and shook the dungeon.

"Hmm… that was it?" Romero jeered… looking on.

However, as he finished that sentence, Albel jumped down from above and cut one of the servants in half. Before the others could respond, he swung his Katana sharply, dissecting one of the other servants.

"Hoo… not too bad at all." Romero commented.

The remaining two monsters dashed at Albel with everything they got. All the swings they took at Albel missed, or was easily blocked by him. Albel jumped back to the distance and commented "I guess I have no choice but to put you maggots out of your misery!" He took a stance, and swung his katana in such a swift fashion that it couldn't even be seen to the eye. "AIR SLASH!" Albel yelled as the swift jet of wind shot along the ground towards the servants. The impact from the wind knocked the servants back all the way to the wall, and down they went, lifeless.

"I must say, you're more skillful than I expected." Romero said. "However, your skills are still amateur. You still can't even put a scratch on someone such as myself."

"HAH! You sound so confident, Worm! So why don't you show me what you got!" Albel challenged.

"As I have said before, I have no intention of lowering myself to fighting a mortal. Not only is the result obvious, but is not of worth to me" Romero claimed. "Consider yourself lucky. However, in the end, it will not matter. You mortals do not have much time left. Everything will end soon for you and Demons will thrive."

"Not if I end you right NOW, fool!" Albel yelled as he lunged towards Romero. Albel took a quick swipe, but swung at nothing as Romero disappeared into thin air.

"What the… hmm… the worm will be back… whatever." Albel said in disappointment. As he looked ahead, however, he noticed a Wall with a switch beside it. He walked up to it and clicked on the switch, granting him access to the room below lead by the stairs.

As he walked down, he noticed the surroundings of the room. It was not too big, but filled with books. In the top part of the room, there was a stand that sort of seemed like an altar with some kind of red relic glowing on top of it. "Hmm…" Albel thought. "I have no idea what this is, but something tells me that I should take it. Maybe the King or that senile old man will know what this is".

Albel turned back and walked back to the entrance, with his mission here now done.

* * *

**Chapter 2: A New Mission**

"I see…" The King commented worrily as Albel gave him the status report. "So the investigative team was possessed by this devil… and you had to terminate them. That is unfortunate, but now we know that the manifestation of demons in this land is indeed real. But what is most troubling is their prophecy."

"Indeed, sire. We know what happened last time somebody claimed the end of mankind. It was those monsters from 2 years ago. But these demons seem completely different." Woltar said.

"Nevertheless, they aren't even close to the strength of those beings 2 years ago. I shall have trouble in disposing them". Albel said confidently.

"We can't say that for sure. They may indeed be weaker, but you do not know how strong these being can truly be. We need to learn more about them." The king said. "Oh, you said that you brought a relic from the basement dungeon with you?"

"Yes sire. What is the purpose of this relic?" Albel asked.

"That I cannot say for sure" The King commented. "The Airyglyph legend says that the relic is some sort of a key, but not much more is known. Only thing we know is that it has mysterious power emitting from it as the tome is now too faded out to read. However, take that with you, it might be of some help for your next mission."

"The next mission?" Albel asked.

"You're going to like this one, boy" Woltar spoke for the King. "You have been ordered by your majesty to investigate the activities of the demons throughout this land. Your destination will be Arias."

"ARIAS? That's Aquarian territory! Why do I have to go to their land? They wouldn't even allow it!" Albel said in disgust.

"We received a word from Aquaria that they have also had problems with these demons - as you know." The King said. "However, they said that they have a plan to defeat them and rid of them. And they asked for our cooperation. Go to Arias. They will let you know of the exact details then".

"You are to go to Arias and meet up with their investigation team. Make your way at once. There might not be much time left if what these demons say is true". Woltar said.

"Bah…. Alright." Albel complied in annoyed voice.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Aquaria, Clair Lasbard was summoned by the Queen. Clair was pretty much the same elegant, classy, and beautiful young women that she was two years ago. In her traditional Aquarian dress, she stepped into the throne room of Castle Aquaria for an audience with the Queen.

"Yes, your majesty? I am here at your service" Clair said politely.

"How are the operations going, Clair? And how are you feeling, any injuries?" The Queen asked.

"I am fine your majesty. Thank you for your concern" Clair said as she bowed. "The situation is under control for now. We have rid of the demons in the immediate Area… but we too have also suffered great damage."

"I see… these demons are stronger than what we have originally thought. We will plan for reinforcements. Job well done, Clair." The Queen commended her.

"Thank you, your majesty" Clair responded. "I can assure you that the major cities will be safe from any harm… but…" Clair faded out in her speech.

"You are worried about Nel, aren't you." The Queen asked. "Indeed, it has been a week since we have sent her to the sealed cavern for the initial investigation. I am also concerned about her whereabouts."

"But I'm sure Nel is fine, and doing a great job" Lasselle said, standing beside the Queen. "Nel is the best agent we have in our land of Aquaria, along with you, Clair. We all know of her accomplishments of 2 years ago. She is very strong. I'm sure this is just taking more time than we originally thought. Sealed Cavern can be quite a confusing place to navigate".

"I would too, also like to believe what Lasselle has said, despite my concerns. I believe that we should not worry for Nel, she is quite capable to taking care of herself." The Queen said.

"You are right your majesty… I am sorry that I'm letting this get to me…" Clair said.

"No worries. But we didn't call you here for just the status report. We have a new mission for you Clair" Lasselle said.

"A new mission?" Clair asked.

"Yes. Upon long research by Elena and Lasselle, it has been discovered that there may be a way to access the source of the demons – place called the Daemoneum." The Queen told Clair. "There is said to be ancient documents from the Days of Ancient Kingdom of Aquor, many years ago, that describe the method of entering such place. We hope that the documents were preserved. You have been assigned to go to Lost City of Surferio to search for these documents. We have already received the permission from the Sanmite Republic".

"Yes your majesty. I understand. I shall head to Surferio at once." Clair said.

"Actually, you are not to head to Surferio right away, Clair. You are to first head back to Arias." Lasselle told her.

"Back to Arias? Why so, magistrate?" Clair asked.

"We have contacted Airyglyph of our problems, and we have heard that they are also having problems with the uprising of Demons as well. Just like two years ago, we have decided it would be the best to cooperate with them to thwart this new threat to our land. You are to head to Arias and wait for arrival of their representative, then head to Surferio to carry out your operation". Lasselle informed her.

"I see, sir. Who might their representative be?" Clair asked.

"They have agreed to full cooperation, so I believe they will send their strongest warrior. I have no doubts it will be Albel Nox." Lasselle said.

"Albel Nox?" Clair asked in surprise. Clair only saw Albel briefly for the first time two years ago, and he wasn't exactly nice. He was as rude, cunning and heartless as the rumours said about him. Now she must work with him?

"Yes. We all know of his heroics, along with Nel and others from two years ago. He will be of a great asset in this mission. Make sure you work well together." The Queen told Clair.

"Yes, your majesty. I shall proceed at once." Clair said… with bit of reluctance inside.

* * *

**Chapter 3: A New Comrade**

Albel descended down Snowing Traum Mountains as he was complaining to himself "Pssh… working again with Aquarian scums… the king has turned way too soft. I can easily carry out this mission on my own. They'll just be in my way!" Albel thought as he eventually reached the entrance to Mining Town of Kirlsa. "But I guess I have no choice… perhaps that women will be of some use, like two years ago."

Albel entered the town and saw that nothing has changed. It has been a while since he has been to Kirlsa; his hometown. He spent his younger days here with his father, and always went over to the nearby Storm Brigade mansion, as his father and Woltar had been pretty close. The town was still bustling with work and commerce as it had been back then. While reminiscing, he went over to the entrance to Kirlsa Caverns.

"Sir Albel!" one of the soldiers said. "How are you? What can I do for you?"

"How I'm doing is none of your business. I'm here for a status report on demons infesting in the Kirlsa caverns. Have they been disposed of?" Albel asked.

"Yes sir! It looks like the problem has been cleared out for now. However, our casualties are heavy. 15 members of the Black brigade entered the Cavern and only 3 returned." The soldier reported. "We had to deal with not only the demons, but also the Hauler Beasts as well; it seems that they were somehow possessed."

"Check the Caverns once again and make sure every single one of those scums are dead. Call in 20 more soldiers from the Training Facility and resume your operation. Got it?" Albel said, giving his orders to the soldier.

"Yes sir! Right away sir!" The soldier said, with a bow.

"Don't fail." Albel muttered as he walked away.

"Those maggots, they can't even beat those weak demons without all the trouble… what good are they? It seems I have to do everything myself around here…" Albel sighed as he walked out from the town. However as he was on the footsteps of the exit, a bright circular bluish-white light appeared in front of him. A man appeared from it; he was very tall, muscular with Black hair and beard.

"Howdy." The man said to Albel.

"Who the hell are you? Appearing out of nowhere like that, you must be from some other planet!" Albel said to the man, baffled.

"Certainly am." the man said. "And you might not remember me at all, but I certainly remember you! We met two years ago."

"Is that so? Well, then refresh my memory for me, fool" Albel said in annoyed voice.

"I'm Lancar. A Klausian, former member of Quark and current member of the New Federation Government; under the command of Captain Cliff Fitter, who I'm sure your certain to remember. I saw you in the Diplo that time, for your information." Lancar told Albel.

"Right. That worm. No matter, I still don't remember you, and you are still of no use. Get out of my way before I have to make you. I have businesses to attend to and no time to chat" Albel retorted.

"Whoa hoo, same attitude as always, huh? Now now, you should listen to what I have to say. Because it looks like we both have the same mission." Lancar said. "You're going to go look for those Demons, aren't you?"

"How do you know that? And so what if I am, how does that concern you? This has nothing to do with your planet." Albel commented.

"Actually, it certainly does. As a matter of fact, this problem may concern the entire universe!" Lancar told him. "Your world isn't the only world where the Demons are infesting. There have been reports of Demons manifesting in various planets around the universe. First reports came from Expel, then later on from Resonia, Earth, and most recently, Klaus. So as you see, this concerns me too."

"So why don't you mind your OWN business and take care of demons in your own land?" Albel asked rudely.

"The concentration of Demons manifesting here in Elicoor was determined to be bigger and stronger than any other planets in the universe, so we naturally came here thinking that this place might be the source" Lancar said. "Besides, we knew guys like yourself and Nel would be of great help to us, so we came here, to also ask for your help. The new federation is still lacking experienced and capable combat personnel, unfortunately."

"Hmph. Well, you can ask that Aquarian wench to help you if you want, but I want no part in it. Leave me out of this." Albel said as he walked away.

"Hey, we're on the same mission, why not let me help?" Lancar asked. "Besides, the demons are not the only problem. We are looking for them because they captured one of our old comrades; who happen to be YOUR old comrade as well."

"And who might that be?" Albel asked, still walking away and not looking.

"I'm sure you remember Fayt. He's been captured by the demons" Lancar said in a serious voice.

"WHAT?" Albel stopped and shouted as he turned back to look at him. The same guy who beat him two years ago is now captured by the demons? "That maggot is captured… it's the 4D beings again?"

"No, as I told you, he was captured by the demons; I don't know why though, exactly." Lancar said. "It cannot be the 4D beings as we are our own world now. Planet Styx has been destroyed, and all connection to the 4D world is now gone. We are guessing the demons captured him knowing his gene's potential, but we don't know for sure. All we know is we must retrieve him or else all of the universe might be in great danger."

"Hmm… so what happened to the other two?" Albel asked, now more curious.

"I'm taking it that you meant Maria and Sophia." Lancar said. "Sophia is safe. She was with Fayt at the time he was captured, and she barely escaped… we have her in safe hands now in New Diplo, so there is no worries. Maria I'm not sure. She went missing 2 years ago to hide from our watch and live a normal life, but I'm pretty sure they want her too. We are doing our best to locate her."

"I see…" Albel said.

"So, as you see, whether you like it or not, I need to get to the bottom of this and I'll follow you. Hopefully you won't mind." Lancar told him.

"Whatever. Do whatever you want, just don't get in my way, because if you cry for help, I am not saving you." Albel muttered.

"Hey now, I'm not going to get in your way. You see, I'm a Klausian, just like Cliff. And although the Captain won't admit this, I believe I'm just about strong as he is, hahaha! Anyways, just do as you were going to before and all I'm gonna do is just follow you. Is that fair enough?" Lancar asked.

"Hmph. Do as you please." Albel said, as they both walked away from Kirlsa onto Kirlsa/Aire Hills.

* * *

Kirlsa/Aire Hills. Having two names because it is a border with the two countries, and also the battleground of the last war they had. Aquaria had agreed to share some of the crop growing land in Aire hills in order to help our Airyglyph's diminishing Agriculture, so most of the land had turned into a farm land.

"This certainly is a nice big place, huh? Not many places in the universe these days you can find such a nice big natural ground, really." Lancar said.

"Shut up fool. I'm not here to chat with you. Just follow quietly before I change my mind about killing you." Albel said.

"Sheesh, not really sociable, are ya?" Lancar sighed.

As Lancar finished that sentence, group of 8 demons rose out of nowhere and surrounded the two men. "Humans…. Must… die! You all need to perish!" the demons yelled.

"We got company, huh? Well, little action would be good sooner than later" Lancar said as he stretched out and unconcerned.

"Just don't get in the way, fool" Albel said as he got ready to unsheathe his katana.

4 of the demons jumped onto Albel, and the other half charged at Lancar. The demons surrounded Albel, with Albel seemingly having nowhere to go. "Come on fools, bring it!" Albel said to the demons. The demons all jumped at Albel trying to attack, but Albel already had a trick up his sleeve. He didn't even look at the demons; he turned back and made a fast, rapid circular motion with his Katana. "SHOCKWAVE SWIRL!" Albel yelled out as rising shockwaves came from the ground through the sky. The four demons were all hit, and were sent flying back.

Meanwhile, Lancar was simply dodging all the things the demons were throwing at him with his superior reflex and motor skills. As he dodged all of them, he threw a swift kick to the midsection of one monster, sending it flying. Lancar then appeared in front of another monster, giving it a powerful uppercut to the chin and hitting it high up in the sky. "Okay, I'm through with playing, time to finish all of you off!" as the other two monsters came chasing after him. Lancar ran back, and jumped incredibly high up in the air. He clenched his two fists together, and made a rapid hammerblow with them while yelling out "HAMMER OF MIGHT!" Rapid Kigong wave was thrown to the ground, making a huge impact on the ground and blowing away all 4 of the demons. Finished with his half of the monsters, Lancar turned back, and looked at Albel "You need any help there?" Lancar asked.

"I don't need your help, maggot" Albel said as he stood front of the 4 demons just starting to recover from his blast of shockwaves. "I'm finishing them off right now." The 4 demons charged desperately at Albel, who just closed his eyes and had his hands on the Katana, letting the monsters come to him. Then, with a blinding flash that wasn't even visible to the eye, he went through all four of them. Albel simply sheathed his katana back, while the demons all tipped and humped over lifelessly.

"Not bad, not bad at all!" Lancar said. "You're as strong as Cliff said you were. I'm impressed!"

"Hmm, don't get so overconfident." Albel commented, not even looking at Lancar, "these are small fries. The demons we may face will be much stronger".

"I guess you're right" Lancar claimed. Before they knew it, they were already at the entrance of Arias.


	2. Part 2: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean 3.**

**Chapter 4: The Meeting**

"Here's something hot for you to drink, Sophia." Cliff said as he approached Sophia in the lounge of New Diplo. "Are you feeling a bit better?".

"I'm better now, thanks Cliff." Sophia said gratefully as she looked out through the windows at the millions of stars flashing by at faster than light speed.

"There is no need to worry, Sophia. You're safe here. One thing the New Federation upgraded was our ship. We're now loaded with top class artiliery and defense shield, no one will break through it!" Cliff said proudly.

"…" Sophia had no comment, seemingly spaced out in thought.

"Oh right… sorry..." Cliff said scratching the back of his head. "I'm still sure that Fayt is alive and well. He's not the type to go down quietly you know. And we all know the powers he is capable of when you really tick him off… don't worry. We'll find him soon enough."

"I hope you're right Cliff" Sophia said, holding on to but still not drinking the tea Cliff gave him. "But I'm just wondering why those demons wanted us; our powers no longer serve any purpose… so why did they want us?"

"I'm pretty sure they wanted his power, just like the Vendeeni two years ago." Cliff claimed. "I have a hunch that they are looking for Maria, too."

"Yeah… I hope we find her soon too. I'm really worried" Sophia said. "anyways, how is the situation around other planets? Is it getting worse?"

"Afraid so…" Cliff said disappointingly. "the demons already took out the city of Linga in Expel, and moving towards Lacour. But they've been in this situation before… I'm sure they will get through it. Klaus will be fine. Mirage is in charge of defense there! She'll make sure everything goes all right… Earth and Resonia are dealing with them easily for now but we're sure that the number of demons will increase; we have to take out their base as soon as possible before they increase in numbers"

"Yeah… I hope we hear from Lancar soon." Sophia said worrily.

"I really hope so too" Cliff said as he looked out to space. "I just hope that Albel doesn't give him too much trouble"

* * *

As Albel entered the riverfront village of Arias, he noticed that things have sure changed from when he was here two years ago. The town had been rebuilt fully from the war, and bustling with people more than ever before. One thing was for sure – it was the strong will of its citizens that brought the village back to how it used to be, maybe even better. 

"Psh… Aquarians." Albel said in disgusted voice. "They make me sick. Let's hurry to their headquarters and then leave this place!"

"What's wrong with the people here?" Lancar asked. "If anything, they are full of life and spirit… maybe you need to get it through your thick skull that they are no longer your enemies. You don't need to be so hostile all the time!"

"Beh… whatever, let's go." Albel brushed him off as they headed to the lord's mansion.

"Welcome, Mr. Nox. Lady Clair is expecting you in the conference room" The guard told Albel at the door. "By the way, who is the man with you? We were informed that it will be just you coming".

"Ah me, let's just say I'm his comrade… from Airyglyph… yes." Lancar said.

"Is that true, Mr. Nox?" The guard asked, suspicious.

"Whatever he says. I'm going through." Albel said as he walked past the guard.

"Pardon him… I think his girlfriend dumped him this morning!" Lancar apologized to the guard.

As the two walked down the hall to the conference room, they were greeted by Clair, as well as Tynave and Farleen. "I welcome you here Albel. Nice to see you again." Clair said to Albel. "Oh… is that man an acquaintance of yours?" She asked, looking at Lancar.

"Let me just say I'm a friend of Fayt, Cliff and Maria. Nice to meet you, Clair… heard lot about ya. My name is Lancar". Lancar said as he shook her hand.

"I see… nice to meet you too Mr. Lancar". Clair said as she bowed to both men.

"Enough of silly formalities" Albel said. "Let's get down to business".

They sat down the conference table, and Clair, Albel and Lancar all explained their own stories.

"I see… so this is not a problem that is unique to our own world… so many other planets are being attacked by demons that are similar to the ones found here, is that right Lancar? And they have Fayt captive?" Clair asked.

"That's right… and you say that Nel had been captured as well?" Lancar asked back.

"Well, we have no proof that she is captured, but that's what I'm highly suspicious of." Clair said with her head bit down. "She was sent on the mission a week ago… she should have been back by now. Nevertheless, we must carry on with our own mission."

"Alright. So we are supposed to head to the land of the mutants?" Albel sneered.

"They are humanoids, not mutants… and yes, we are to head out to Surferio." Clair answered, albeit a little annoyed. "Let's move out at once. I will pick out one of my top class subordinates to aid us in our quest. They are still learning, but are quite capable in battle. Tynave, Farleen, please come in."

"Yes, ma'am" Both said as they came in through the door.

"What the… you mean those two weaklings? Bah… I beat them effortlessly two years ago. They'll just get in my way!" Albel complained.

"HOW RUDE!" Farleen retorted in her high-pitched voice "We aren't as weak as we were two years ago, we've improved a lot under the teachings of Lady Nel! And you're still mean as ever, mister!"

"It's true!" Tynave said. "We don't like working with you as much as you do. I won't ever forget what you did to us in Kirlsa Training Facility and Becqurel mountains… but these are our orders!"

"Stop it you two!" Clair yelled out at them as she looked back to Albel. "Do not worry, Albel. I assure you that they have improved. They will be of an asset in battle, I promise."

"Fine. Let it be… I guess another loser won't make a difference." Albel muttered.

"GRRRR…" Farleen growled as she tried to calm herself down.

"Alright everyone. Let's move out." Clair said.

"Alright, Farleen, you are to come with us. Tynave, You are in charge of protecting Arias and the front from the Demons. I have trust in you." Clair said.

"Yes ma'am. Don't worry about Arias… I'll keep it under control. May the grace of Apris be with you." Tynave said with a salute.

"May the grace of Apris be with you. Alright. Let's go everybody." Clair said as the group headed out.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Fiasco in Peterny**

The group made its way through Palmira Plains on its way to Peterny, from where they will head to Surferio. It was a nice sunny day, with crystal clear blue waters flowing from the seas shoreside, as usual.

"From here to Peterny will be a relatively short trip." Clair said. "Still, there are some monsters and perhaps demons lurking around. Let's be on our guard at all times."

"Heh heh…" Lancar laughed. "You are just as serious faced as Nel was. It almost seems like you two were sisters or something!"

"Well, we grew up together… and she's my best friend. She might as well be my sister. I hope she is alright… anyways, I have to be serious when I am on the mission, but I assure you, I'm not as stoic as Nel can be. I do know when you have to take things easy for a while." Clair smiled as she explained it to Lancar.

"That's good!" Lancar said. "Mr. I don't care about anything that is traveling with us here should learn a thing or two from what you said!"

"Shut up, worm!" Albel shouted, very annoyed.

"It's true!" Farleen yelled at Albel. "Are you ever nice? Just what is your problem, meanie! And WE'RE NOT WORMS!"

"I hate to interrupt all of us getting to know each other better, but it looks like we have company…" Lancar said as he looked ahead to see three scorpions and one big turtle-like creature.

"Alright." Clair got ready as she reached back to waist to grab her weapons, the twin daggers, just like Nel.

The two Scorpions attacked Clair first with their tails as she flew up out of the harm's way. Effortlessly, she dived behind the two monsters and yelled "SHADOW WAVE!". The dark waves cut through the two scorpions like paper.

"AIR SLASH!" Albel yelled as he swung his katana across. The wind blast took the third scorpion out without much trouble, sending it across over the edge of the cliff.

"Alright, leave the last one to me!" Farleen said. "FIRE BOLT!" she yelled as the ball of fire flew towards the turtle creature, homing in on it. A spectacular blast filled the plains.

"That should take care of it… HUH?" Farleen yelled as the Turtle creature emerged from the smoke, seemingly undamaged.

"I told you your skills are too weak, fool!" Albel said as he swung his Katana again. "AIR SLASH!" he yelled as the wind blast knocked the turtle creature on to his back.

"That's how you do it, maggots…" Albel said cockily. However, as he turned away, the turtle creature rolled back up, seemingly unharmed. "What the…!" Albel yelled in surprise.

"Take THIS!" Lancar shouted as he flew up. "HAMMER OF MIGHT!" The impact sent the creature on its back again, but still not out.

"Damn…" Lancar cursed. "His protective shell is too strong. We can't break through it."

"If that is so, I have a plan." Clair said as she rushed forward. The creature also rushed ahead and tried to impale Clair with his horn. Clair dodged the thrust barely, and landed behind its back. She said "He might have a hard shell, but he is still a living creature.", as she got ready for her technique. "POISON CLOUD!" she yelled out as the green mist of poison engulfed the monster. It rolled over, wincing in pain as its life force slowly drained away from it.

"That'll take care of it." Clair said as she walked away. "Let us carry on, then."

"She's as good as Nel if not better, that's for sure..." Lancar commented, impressed.

"…" Albel walked along without any comment, though he was little impressed.

* * *

"Here we are." Clair said as the group entered the Trading Town of Peterny, which have become busier than it had ever been in history after the peace had come two years ago. With the threats of war now gone, the economy became more free and stable; making Peterny even more prosperous than it had been before. 

"It's almost sundown. Let's all rest here tonight then carry on to Surferio tomorrow morning." Clair said. "Feel free to look around, and stock up on what you have to. We'll meet back at the Inn at West side of the town in couple hours."

"ALL-RIGHT! I'm going to go look around and do some shopping! The Charms and earrings they sell here in Peterny are the BEST!" Farleen said as she ran off with obvious excitement.

"I'll go look around as well." Lancar said. "I think I remember Cliff telling me there was a killer bar around here! I'll go check it out. See you guys later."

"I'm going to go to the Inn right now and make the reservations with my subordinates." Clair told Albel. "What are you going to do, Albel?" She asked.

"Hmph." Albel grunted . "Perhaps they may actually sell some decent equipments around here. I'm going to go check out the weapons shop, and whatever I do after that is none of your business."

"…Alright. Just meet back with us in an hour, then." Clair said as she left, again a little annoyed at Albel's response.

Albel wondered around the town looking for the weapon shop. As he was walking around, he came across a church. It had grey brick walls, and old brown wooden doors… just like any other church, it seemed. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind in a microsecond. A similar church, but another place… from seemingly long, long time ago. Albel just sort of shook his head a little bit, annoyed at the thought. These flashbacks happened often to him, it seemed, but everytime he tried to remember them it didn't seem to have any meaning, and made things just hazier. Shrugging it off, Albel continued his search of the weapons shop.

"Hmm… no good. How can they sell a crap like that over here… and I thought this was supposed to be the best town to buy such things?" Albel said in disgust as he examined the weapons. "All of these are useless. I will keep my old sword… it's better than these hunk of junk" Albel said, as he looked back to his trusty Crimson Scourge.

As he came out of the weapons shop, he saw another merchant by the corner. He seemed to be selling musical instruments.

"MOMMY! Can we buy that music box? Pleeze… please?" One kid cried out to his mother.

"Well, it does look pretty old… sir, can we listen to its sound first?" the mother asked.

"Sure thing! You can trust us; we are the best music shop in Peterny! You can listen to it for yourself!" The shop merchant said enthusiastically as he gave the music box couple turns. The music box played a bittersweet but beautiful melody which soon filled that corner of the town. Albel looked on, almost hypnotized, bewildered by a mysterious nostalgia which he couldn't really understand himself.

"Hey!" A voice interrupted Albel's thought. "What are you staring at? Wha… at that music box? I didn't know you would be into things like that!" Farleen asked as Albel snapped out of his throught. "Beh… get lost, fool!" Albel yelled out in disgust as he turned and walked away from Farleen.

"Err… RUDE AS ALWAYS!" Farleen complained.

Back in the Peterny Inn, Clair was in her room taking a nice, warm bath. As the ever-refreshing water trickled down the curves of Clair's milky, smooth body, she got immersed in her own personal thought. _'That Albel Nox… he is still the same…Rude, cold, and sarcastic at everybody. Still, something is telling me he's not showing his true self… he seems to be hiding something… actually, it seems like he's not even sure of what he is hiding himself. Like a troubled past… I did hear that his father died in a battle, somewhat like what happened to Nel…'_

'_Nel…'_ Clair thought as she stepped out of the bathroom and reached to cover her moist body with a white towel. _'Please be okay. We'll be there soon'._

At the exact moment she stepped out of the bathroom, Albel entered the room without a knock. "AHH!" Clair yelled as she covered herself as best as she can with the towel, her face blushing beet red. "…! um… hmm…" Albel, in shock, had his eyes frozen on her but was trying to look away as hard as he can. He struggled to say anything at first, but then gathered himself, his eyes now looking away. "… my apologies.". Clair was mortified, just standing there frozen with herself covered. "… I'm…. I'm sorry." She muttered as she just looked away. The silence then went on for what seemed like an eternity, until the door opened once again.

"I'm back Lady Clair! Look at the things I g…. WHAAAAA?" Farleen yelled in surprise as she dropped everything she was holding on the floor. "YOU PERVERT! Get out of the room! Lady Clair, this way!" she said as she pushed Albel away and rushed Clair back into the bedroom.

Albel, still somewhat stunned, slowly walked out of the room without responding to all the curse words that Farleen yelled at him.

"Ahh! Are you okay Lady Clair? He didn't try anything, did he?" Farleen, still in panic, asked Clair who finally somewhat regained her composure. "I'm… I'm fine. Don't worry about it Farleen… this was… a big misunderstanding. It was my fault." Clair reassured her.

"Errrrrrrr!" Farleen growled to herself "I have no idea what in the world that man is thinking, or what he is trying to do! He is soooo frustrating to deal with!"

"It's okay Farleen, it's not his fault…" Clair said once again, still blushing a little.

"It's always guys like him! Err, the ones that have such good looks, are all really nothing but BIG JERKS!" Farleen complained angrily.

"…" Clair had no comment.

Outside, Albel just stood there in front of the inn, mad at himself. '_Sorry? Why did I say that! It was her fault for just barging out like that. Bah…_' he thought to himself in disgust, but with the memory of the scene still vivid in his mind.

"Hey." Lancar said to Albel as he walked towards the inn. "Sorry I'm late. I didn't miss anything major, did I?"

"…" Albel said nothing as he walked back into the Inn, ignoring Lancar's question.

Lancar, puzzled at the lack of any response, told himself "I guess that's a no…" as he also walked into the Inn.

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Motive**

_Albel was surrounded by hoard of Dragons once again. With the King, Woltar, and his father looking on, he dashed at the dragon with all his might. All of a sudden, a winged creature appeared out of nowhere, and said "You broke the pact. You broke your promises. For that, now you will pay" A burst of flames shot out at Albel, who stood in place frozen. His father pushed him out of the way, taking a direct hit._

"_FATHER!" Albel yelled, with his arm and his father burning in flames…_

"_know… who you really are Albel… look within… yourself… find your own… truth…"_

"…!" Albel sat up violently, with sweat trickling down his forehead.

"…. Another dream…" Albel told himself. He looked at the clock, which read '2:12 am'. Albel got off from his bed, and walked out to the balcony for a nice, fresh breath of cool outside air.

'The same old dream… always.' Albel thought to himself while looking at his metal arm. 'What did he mean by finding out my own truth…'

"Sorry to bother you…" a voice came from behind Albel, taking him by surprise.

"!…. Oh, it's just you." Albel looked back out as Clair walked into the balcony.

"Why are you still up? Can't sleep?" Clair asked, standing next to Albel on the porch.

"It's none of your concern. Go back to your sleep." Albel said without looking at her.

"I woke up because I just had some things that I wanted to think about…" Clair told him. After a brief silence, she spoke again. "About earlier today, I'm sorry. That was my fault."

"You could have had the doors closed, you know. It's something people do when they go to the bathroom…"Albel complained. "Watch it next time."

"I didn't know you'd be back so soon, but you're right. I'm sorry once again." Clair said as she bowed to Albel.

"Hmph. Just forget about it." Albel said as he looked up to the starry night sky.

"So… why did you decide to fight in this mission?" Clair asked him.

"The King ordered me to… why else?" Albel replied.

"You mean you have no personal reason? Like something or someone you're fighting to protect from those demons?" Clair asked again.

"I don't care about protecting anyone or anything stupid like that. Others are not of my concern. But if you ask for a personal reason, I may just have one." Albel commented with his eyes still glued to the sky.

"What might that be?" Clair asked curiously.

"Revenge." Albel said. "Those demon bastards killed my father and made me lose my arm." Albel spoke with his hand now clenched into a fist. "I won't rest until I get my revenge on those scums."

"!…" Clair was surprised. "Your father, the great Glou Nox, and your arm? But I thought… that it was from the Accession of the flames' ceremony… at least from the rumours I've heard…"

"It was indeed at the ceremony…" Albel said. "But it wasn't a dragon. It was the demons."

"But why would they…" Clair asked, only to be interrupted by Albel.

"I do not have the answers to all the questions, fool. Just know that I won't rest until I get my revenge!" Albel told her.

"Right… sorry for asking." Clair apologized, looking away.

"So why did YOU accept this mission…" Albel asked, still not really looking at Clair.

"I'm here… because I want to find Nel. I am really worried about her." Clair told him. "Something tells me that she is in great danger… I need to find her."

"That women won't die so easily. She survived against me once, after all." Albel said.

"Right." Clair agreed. "But besides that… I have another motivating reason. I want to protect my country, my family… and my friends from these evil demons."

"Protect your home? Your friends? How pathetic… something like that won't motivate you anyhow. People are selfish creatures… people ultimately only care for themselves." Albel commented with a bitter grin.

"I don't believe in that" Clair said. "You've never been in the situation where you wanted to protect something, have you?"

"…" Albel had no comment.

"Well, that's my true reason for fighting, and my main motivation." Clair went on. "My father always told me the same when I was growing up and training… though he may be stubborn and paranoid in lot of his beliefs, having gone through so many things throughout the years myself, I now believe him. He said that you couldn't reach your true potential until you can find that motivation. And that the feeling of revenge or aggression will only take you so far."

"Hmph…" Albel sneered, still not looking but listening.

"Perhaps you can think a bit about that yourself." Clair said as she turned and walked away. "I think we better get back to sleep, it's getting late. See you tomorrow morning… good night." She turned back, bowed, and went back into the room.

"… night." Albel said as he turned back for the first time on the night, long after she had gone back.

* * *

"Alright. We are off to our destination, then, to the Lost City of Surferio." Clair told the group outside of the Inn in the early morning. "We will head out straight through this road leading west, and we should be able to reach our destination by mid afternoon. Let's head out." 

"OKAY! Let's GOOO!" Farleen shouted cheerily, as the group exited Peterny towards the Sanmite Steppes.

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Four Relics**

The group reached the Lost of City of Surferio without any problems. The four fighters easily disposed of any monsters along the way, with their strength completely outclassing anything that was native to Elicoor II. No before long, they had finally reached their first destination.

"Yaaay! Surferio! I love this town, it's so quiet and peaceful… not to mention some of the humanoids here are sooo cute!" Farleen said excitedly as she ran in ahead of everybody else.

"Hmm. Land of the freak shows." Albel commented. "Where do we go from here, then?" He asked.

"We have to go to the Mayor's house. Our agents notified him of our situation couple days ago. He should be expecting us." Clair said.

"HEY! WHO IS THERE?" A familiar, loud voice echoed throughout the road, its source apparently being top of the tree. "You demons! I, the protector of our sacred town and the real man's men, will destroy you!…. Huh?…"

"That tone…" Albel said, "Don't tell me…"

"Can it be?" The mysterious person said as he dropped down to below from the tree. "It really IS you! It's been so long!"

"I knew it…" Albel mumbled in an annoyed fashion.

"It's me! Roger! You guys surely remember the main hero from two years ago!" Roger said in a welcoming voice. "Albel looks the same… and you guys are Clair, and Farleen! And I don't remember the big guy, but I'm sure I've seen him from somewhere! Anyways, nice to meet you all again!" Roger had now grown about a feet over the last year or so… as tall as any Menodix would ever get. He still sported the same helmet, but now with a simple short Green T-shirt and a baggy khaki pants; he had the same furry tail, of course.

"Ohhhh… right. So you're the famous Roger… now I remember you!" Lancar said smiling. "How can I forget? I've heard all those of stories about you from the Captain! Well, they weren't particularly nice or anything… but good to see you again! I'm Lancar, we may have met on the Diplo."

"Likewise! So good to see you all again! But wait a minute… aren't we missing a couple people here? Where's Fayt? The big bonehead? And miss Nel? And others?" Roger asked.

"Well… Clair started to get serious as she started to summarize the basic story to Roger.

"I see…" Roger said in a serious voice for once "So Fayt have gone missing, and so have Miss Nel and Maria… and you guys are here to find out how to beat the demons?" He asked.

"Yes. We're looking for the ancient document that describe how we can get to their homeland, called the Daemoneum. We need to defeat them as fast as we can… and we're on our way to the mayor's house so we can find the documents." Clair explained.

"The mayor's house? No problem, leave it to me! Come on; follow the leader boys and girls! This way!" Roger said confidently as he lead the group out towards the Mayor's house.

"He's exactly as Cliff described him." Lancar said with a grin. "Hahaha! What a funny kid!"

"The same annoying brat." Albel said as the group walked into the Mayor's house. It was no different from any other houses in Surferio – completely made of wood, not too big, but nice and cozy. As they entered, a Woman greeted them at the hallway.

"Ah! You must be the ones that my husband is expecting. This way please." She said as she led the party to the living room.

"Greetings! I'm the mayor of this town, and I have been expecting you." The mayor said, shaking Clair's hand.

"Nice you meet you, Mr. Mayor. I have to thank you for agreeing to cooperate with our nations." Clair said politely as she bowed.

"It's not a problem… we are just glad to be of some help. So, you wanted the documents from the days of Kingdom of Aquor on how to enter the Daemoneum?" Mayor asked, as everybody now settled down in their chairs.

"Yes sir. That's what we are looking for." Clair answered. "Would you happen to know where it is?"

"Well yes! Actually, I heard about the situation earlier from your agents, so I went to my archives and found those documents as soon as I could!" The Mayor said as he reached towards the book lying beside him. "This book was written entirely in ancient characters that were used back in the days of Kingdom of Aquor, but luckily, we knew how to translate them; so we translated the words and found out the basic details on what we need to do to enter the Daemoneum."

"That's excellent!" Lancar said excitedly. "So there IS really a way of reaching their home. How do we do so, mayor?"

"Rest easy, I will explain it to you." The mayor said as he went on. "The book described that there are four special relics that will create a special gateway to enter the Daemoneum… a place that exists in another space that is totally different from ours."

"_In another space_… totally different from us?" Farleen asked.

"It must mean that they exist in a totally different dimension than ours…" Lancar explained. "That would explain why they are also appearing everywhere else in the galaxy, too."

"So where can we find these relics, Mayor? I'm assuming they are hidden?" Clair asked.

"Indeed." Mayor said. "There was once a war many years ago… where the evil demons tried to take over this land. Their strength was unmatched – not even the combined power of the Kingdom of Aquor and the Kingdom of Greeton were strong enough to defeat them. But when thing were looking bleak, we discovered a strange object, which glowed red and emitted a great power. Using it, our scientists were able to create a device that enabled us to seal their point of entrance for good."

"…" everyone was silent as they listened closely.

"Those were the four relics." The mayor continued. "After we sealed the demons off from our land, fearing the potential danger that it can also work the other way around, the four relics were hidden away at various places around our world; so that it won't fall into the wrong hands."

"So where could they be? Does it say where they are hidden?" Clair asked.

"Yes. According to the records, there should be one hidden in each one of the nations in our land. One is said to be right here in Sanmite, somewhere in the Passage from Parch to Plenty. The second one is at the Aquatic Gardens of Surferio, in Aquaria; the third is hidden in the Cave of Greeton in Kingdom of Greeton… and the last relic is said to be hidden somewhere in the land of Airyglyph." The mayor told her.

"!" Albel's eyes opened wide in surprise as the last part of the mayor's paragraph caught his attention. "In Airyglyph huh… by any chance, does the relic, look like this?" he asked as he reached for his pocket and took out a small, triangle-shaped red glowing object.

"My! Why yes, that is exactly how it looks like! What a coincidence!" The mayor said in excitement. "Where did you happen to find it?" he asked.

"In Airyglyph dungeon" Albel answered. "So this is perfect. We know how this relic exactly looks like now."

"Let me examine that" Lancar asked as he took out his quad scanner and started analyzing it "Let's see… uh huh… right.. wow.." he mumbled to himself in amazement. "It's the real deal. This object is indeed of great power… looks like we just found another OPA."

"OPA… you mean it's something like the Sacred orb." Clair asked.

"Something like that. But with this, I'm certain that we'll be able to enter their dimension." Lancar told the group.

"Alright. Good then. We already have one. So you said there is a place where we can get another relic somewhere near here, is that correct?" Albel asked.

"Yes." The Mayor answered. "Somewhere in the Passage from Parch to Plenty."

"Alright then." Clair spoke as she stood up. "Now we know what we have to do. So let's move out to the Passage from Parch to Plenty at once. There is not much time to waste."

"Okay everyone, let's head out." Clair told the group as she turned to face the Mayor outside near the entrance to Passage from Parch to Plenty. "Thank you for all your help, Mr. Mayor." She said as she bowed to him.

"I'm glad to be of help. I will pray for your success." The Mayor answered.

* * *

With everything ready, the group turned back and headed towards the entrance to the Passage. But before they could enter, they heard someone yelling from far away. 

"HEY… WAAAIT! WAIT FOR ME!" Roger yelled as he ran down the bridge to meet with the group. "You weren't going to go without me now, were ya? How can you guys just leave your leader behind like that?"

"Huh?" Clair said, surprised. "But Roger, this will be a very dangerous mission. You shouldn't come with us…"

"Err…! Have you guys already forgot all the guys I defeated two years ago?" Roger asked in an angry, annoyed voice "I defeated guys like Crosell! Vox! And Luther!" He claimed. "And you guys are worried that this adventure will be too dangerous for me? HAH! Nothing is too dangerous for Roger S. Huxley, men among real men!"

"But…" Clair said hesitantly.

"Don't worry, I can take care of myself! I've have become even stronger over the last two years, you know!" Roger said proudly. "Besides, I really want to help out you guys rescue Fayt and Nel… if it wasn't for them… I might still be stuck in that cage in Duggus Forest. I owe it to them… so COME ON! Please?" He begged.

"I like the kid's attitude, guys. Let him come along." Lancar agreed. "I remember Cliff told me that he might be an annoying kid, but that he could surprisingly hold his own in a fight!"

"What did that idiot call me?" Roger asked in annoyed voice.

"Alright… if that's the case, I welcome you to the group, Roger." Clair agreed. "But what does everybody else think about this?"

"I'm fine with it… the more the merrier!" Farleen said.

"Let him do whatever he please, I don't care" Albel said as he walked into the Passage. "There is no time to lose. I'm going in."

"YEEESSSS!" Roger jumped up with excitement. "Okay! LET'S HEAD OUT, TEAM!"


	3. Part 3: Chapters 8, 9, 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean 3.**

**Chapter 8: Passage from Parch to Plenty**

"I've never been in these caves before…" Farleen complained as she walked through the paths of the Passage from Parch to Plenty. "So how do we know where to go from here? I mean, we didn't bring a map or anything…"

"Hmm. Fool. You just want everything already done for you, like a little kid." Albel sneered. "Stop complaining and just follow where I go. Of course, if you are afraid of getting lost, you can always go back home to your loser friend."

"OHHHH! Quiet, YOU!" Farleen yelled.

"Just shut up and follow like you should, then. I know for sure that we have to go east, after that, we'll just have to search". Albel said as he walked towards to the east.

"He's right" Clair said. "The west section of this cave will only lead us to the Mosel Dunes… it is logical that the relic would be somewhere on the east side, instead."

"Okay then! To the east we go!" Roger said as he walked behind Albel.

The group traveled through the different sections of the Passage from Parch to Plenty, which was little bit of a maze. Many times they were met with a dead end, and were forced to backtrack. Enemies they met on the way offered little to no resistance so far.

"We've been searching for over an hour… man, this sure is one complex place, huh?" Lancar complained.

"We musn't give up." Clair told him. "I think we've explored most of the Cave so far. Surely there aren't too many other passages left."

"Well, I've recorded our past tracks on my quad scanner so that we don't go into the same area twice." Lancar said as he looked at his scanner. "And at least getting back won't be too much of a problem…"

"Quiet. We got company." Albel said as he went into this battle stance and reached back for his Katana "Same old worms?"

In front of them, stood 5 Ghoul Knights as well as Countless numbers of Bats. Though they have been overmatched so far, the monsters countered this time with sheer numbers.

"Alright guys, I have a feeling it'll be little harder this time." Lancar said as he adjusted his Gauntlet "Let's finish them off!"

Albel dashed forward and quickly cut through all the Bats that were flying towards him with his Katana. As more bats flew towards him from his back, Albel swung his Katana rapidly in a smooth, circular motion. "SHOCKWAVE SWIRL!" The shockwaves repelled all the bats that were flying towards him.

Meanwhile, Lancar and Clair were dealing with the Ghoul Knights. Lancar evaded a swing of the Knight's sword easily as he gave it a powerful knee thrust towards its midsection. The Ribcage of the Ghoul Knight shattered in pieces as its body broke into two. As another Ghoul Knight approached him, Lancar spun around and yelled "TRIPLE KICK!" as he hit the enemy three times with powerful spin kicks. The third spin kick took out its head as it shattered in pieces and the body dropped down on the ground like ton of bricks. However, as he gathered himself, another Ghoul warrior swung downwards with his sword, hitting Lancar with a loud impact.

"Heh heh. Almost" Lancar teased as he had blocked the sword blow with his gauntlet just in time. "I'll see you later!" He said as he ducked downward, turned and thrusted his leg high upward "LAUNCHER KICK!" The monster was sent high into the air, floating helplessly.

"Let me finish him off!" Roger yelled as he readied himself with his new weapons; Twin Axes that were chained together sort of like a Nunchaku. Roger swung his axe around in a circle, reached back and threw it towards the floating Ghoul Knight as he yelled "FIERY AXE!" The flaming axe shattered the enemy apart while creating a spectacular explosion.

Clair stood alone with another Ghoul Knight. As the enemy charged towards her, she quickly sidestepped its attack and yelled "SHADOW WAVE!" However, the enemy had also anticipated the move, as it jumped back to evade the waves. As it dashed towards Clair once again, she posed for another battle skill. "LEAF SLASH!" she yelled as she disappeared into thin air leaving only the flying leaves behind. She suddenly appeared in front of the enemy in another storm of leaves, giving it a double spin slash. The Ghoul fell apart in pieces as she stepped back.

Meanwhile, Albel and Farleen were having trouble with the sheer number of bats that were flying towards them. Each one of them were easy to defeat, but they just kept coming, their numbers seemingly endless.

As Farleen was fighting off the bats with her firebolt and wind blade spell, another bat on her blind side shot series of three needles at her. "!" Farleen turned around with having no time at all to react to it.

"ICE NEEDLES!" Clair yelled as her ice needles deflected the bat's needle shots just in time.

"Bah!…" Albel yelled. "There are no end to these worms… where are they coming from, anyway?" he asked as he cut through many bats in a flash.

"Let me finish them all at once then!" Farleen spoke out as she jumped backwards with her staff and began her spellcasting. After a few seconds, she posed towards the group of bats while yelling out.

"RAY!" Numerous laser beams from the sky cut through the bats all at once, as they all dropped dead like flies.

"That's all of them!" She said, "Let's carry on!"

* * *

"… looks like there is another path over to our right. It's a little dark in there, but it might lead somewhere. Let's check it out." Clair said as she walked towards the darker tunnel.

"It's getting darker and darker… I can hardly see anything!" Lancar commented, "I wonder if this path will really lead to anywhere? Probably another dead end."

"Wait a minute! Can everybody see that?" Roger said as his voice echoed throughout the now near completely dark tunnel. "I see a red light!"

The group walked towards the light, and what they saw was an altar holding a triangle-shaped relic shining red – just like the one Albel got from Airyglyph. "This is it!" Clair said. "We've found it! Alright, guys, let's head back out then."

"Not so fast." Albel said. "Something is coming."

He was right indeed… as the chilling wind began to blow throughout the dark tunnel, a dark demon appeared out of nowhere and swiped its claws. The wind blast took out all the members of the group, knocking them back to the wall and down in pain.

"Ack!" Albel yelled. "You'll pay for that!"

Albel dashed towards the monster that he could barely see in the dark, and slashed at it with his Katana repeatedly. However, not only was this monster difficult to see, it was also lightning quick; it evaded all of Albel's attacks easily, as it knocked him back with it's wind blast again.

"Shit!" Albel cursed. "I can barely see that bastard, and it's quick!"

"We're coming to help!" Lancar yelled as him, Roger, and Clair all dashed towards the monster, attacking it furiously. However, every one of their attacked missed him, while he appeared behind them to ready his own skill. "DAAARKK TORNADO!" The tornado blast sent everybody flying, all down in pain once again.

"Damn!" Lancar cursed. "He's too quick, and there is just no way we can track him down in this dark!"

"OH!" Farleen yelled as she thought of something. "I have an idea… I want to try out this spell, but the casting might take a bit long… can everybody keep him occupied, please, while I do it?"

"Alright, this better work." Albel said as he charged at the monster once again.

Everybody attacked the monster with all they got, trying to distract him from much as they can until Farleen completed her casting. All the Air Slashes, Shadow Waves, Triple Kicks and the Fiery Axe missed it however, due to the poor visibility as well as because of the quickness of the Dark Demon. Numerous slashes by the demon sent our heroes down in pain.

"Uwaa…. Hurry… UP!" Albel yelled to Farleen.

"Please… Hurry!" Clair also begged in pain. "I don't… know how much longer… we can hold… on… for!"

"Okay! Here it GOES!" Farleen yelled as everybody stepped back…

"STAR LIGHT!" Farleen yelled as series of Stars flew up into the air, lighting up the entire cave. The light from the stars shined right onto the Dark Demon, immobilizing it and stunning it in pain.

"NOW! Finish him off!" Farleen yelled.

"GWAAAH! TAKE THIS!" Albel cried as it dashed towards the now-easily seen and immobilized monster. "DOUBLE SLASH!" Albel yelled as he swung his Katana upward then downward at the monster with tremendous power and speed. The swings made a direct, precise hit, as monster went down from the powerful impact. It humped over on to its knees, then fell face flat on the ground, disappear into thin air.

"We got it!" Clair said in excitement. "Good job, Farleen!"

"Sorry… it took so long!" Farleen said, on her knees and apparently out of breath "That spell was new… and it took lot of concentration… sorry everybody!"

"It's alright… okay, lets get that relic" Clair said, helping Farleen up to her feet.

"Hmph… that makes two." Albel said as he picked up the red relic from the Altar.

"There's two more to go. Let's head out." Albel said as the group walked back towards the exit, with their mission for the second relic now complete.

* * *

**Chapter 9: An old nemesis**

After a night's rest in the Mayor's house in Surferio, the group made its way out once again, to their next destination – Aquatic Gardens of Surferio.

"Alright, our next destination is the Aquatic Gardens of Surferio." Clair said as the group walked along the Sanmite Steppe towards Peterny "First we get to Peterny, then head northwest on Irisa Fields."

"Aquatic Gardens, huh…" Lancar commented. "So have you ever been to this place? Aquatic Gardens… sounds like a pleasant place."

"The Aquatic Gardens of Surferio was built back in the days of the Ancient Kingdom of Aquor, hundreds of years ago." Clair explained, "It used to be a beautiful place from what I hear. However, it was destroyed during the war between Aquor and Greeton… lot of the structures still remains, but its access has been banned by her majesty because a lot of dangerous monsters have taken residence there over the years… I've also never been there myself, so we'll need to be caref…"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Clair was interrupted by a voice coming from front of them. Three men stood there, all armed with thief swords. "If you would like to live, drop all your belongings now, because we'll be taking it!" Their Leader said.

"Ah… more worms…" Albel commented, with a sigh. "You'd better get out of my face before I cut you into pieces."

"WHAT did you say? Do you even know whom you're messing with? We're the famous Moonshadow Clan!" The leader said. "We've been out of action for a while, but now we're back! And more dangerous than ever! SO if you value your life, you will be giving us all your belongings… including those two little red jewels you got there, now!"

"Get out of our face, morons!" Roger shouted. "Or we're gonna be forced to… HEEEEY… I've seen you from somewhere…"

"Huh? Wait a minute… that tail…! IT'S YOU!" The Clan chief yelled out in surprise.

"Who's the evil looking dude? Roger, you know him?" Lancar asked quietly.

"I HEARD THAT!" The Chief yelled in an annoyed voice.

"Oh yeah! Hehe, that's right… my boys and I taught him a lesson two years ago in the Duggus Forest! But it looks like the idiot is back for more!" Roger said, amused.

"You'd leave right now if you know what is good for you." Clair said, "You guys are not going to want any trouble"

"SHUT UP! This is perfect! It's time to teach that Raccoon boy a lesson, and put him back in his cage where he belongs!" The Chief said. "Let's get them, boys!"

"HAH! You are NO match for Roger S. Huxley, THE MAN! Step back guys… I shall take care of this moron ALL by myself!" Roger said as he stepped forward.

"But are you sure Roger? That man looks really evil and dangerous!" Farleen asked.

"It's true, Roger," Lancar agreed. "Not only does he look evil, but he seems like you really pushed his buttons last time! Must be a really sensitive guy…"

"WHY, YOU!" The Chief yelled, now REALLY pissed off.

"Let him take care of these worms" Albel said. "I can't be bothered to play with these fools, anyway."

"LET'S GO BOYS! GYAAA!" The chief yelled as him and the other two thieves charged at Roger with their thief swords.

"Hah!" Roger said as he easily dodged the thieves' clumsy sword slashes. He took his Double chained axe, and wrapped it around one of the thieves. As he had him tied up, Roger pulled on the chain while yelling "WHIRLING HEAT!" The thief spun off from the chain like a tornado, hitting the second thief hard and knocking them both out.

"Wha… HOW DARE YOU!" The Moonshadow Clan Chief yelled as he charged towards Roger furiously.

"TAKE THIS! Roger yelled as he dodged his sword slashes, and ran up to his midsection. "CHARGE!" The impact sent the Moonshadow Clan Chief flying, who then hit a tree and passed out.

"How do you like THAT, boys?" Roger said cockily as he did a pose back to the group.

"WOW, Roger, you've really gotten strong!" Farleen cheered, "You really showed those evil people!"

"Good job Roger." Clair said. "That was really impressive!"

"Hahaha! OF COURSE! Like I said, I've been doing a lot of training over the last two years! These guys are no match for me! Come on guys, let's go beat up on some stronger opponents next time!" Roger said proudly… as one thief, recovered, slowly sneaked up behind Roger, ready to impale him with his sword. "ROGER! Watch out!" Lancar yelled.

"Huh?" Roger said, not having any clue of what's going on.

"THUNDERBOLT!" Farleen yelled as her thunderbolt spell fried the thief black and crisp. "Er…err…" the thief mumbled as he passed out for good.

"Hmph, watch your back at all times, and never get overconfident, fool." Albel grunted as he started walking towards Peterny again, leaving ahead of everyone.

"Umm…heh… gotcha…" Roger said, little embarrassed.

* * *

The group rested a short while at Peterny, then made their way Northwest of Irisa Fields to finally reach the Aquatic Gardens of Surferio

"So this is the place." Albel commented as he stepped into the dungeon.

"Yes, this is it." Clair said, walking in behind him. "As I have said before, this dungeon is infesting with various types of monsters… They shouldn't give us too much trouble, but still…everyone should be careful."

"Right." Lancar said as he approached an empty hallway, seemingly devoid of anything. "But what's with this place? It just seems completely empty!"

"Hmph…" Albel grunted as he walked ahead of everybody into the hall. Oblivious to what was on the ground, he took his steps towards a shiny green panel on the floor.

"WAIT, Albel!" Clair yelled as he ran after him, trying to stop him from stepping on it.

As Albel stepped on the green panel, the trap fence appeared from the ceiling and shut itself right down to the ground, barely missing Clair who made it over to Albel's side.

"Bah… What is this?" Albel asked. "A trap?"

"Ugh…" Clair moaned as she got up slowly. "I did hear that this place was full of defense mechanisms… but…"

"Lady Clair! Lady Clair!" Farleen shouted from beyond the fence on the other side. "Are you okay? We'll be right there! Hold on!"

"Ugggghhh… no…it's no good" Lancar said as he tried to pry the fence and break it open. "It is made of something way too strong. We can't break through it."

"Hmmm… that means we're split. Perfect… less fools to take care of." Albel said.

"This is not good…" Clair said. "Are you guys going to be all right? This is horrible…"

"Well… it does look like there is another path besides our side that leads to something." Farleen said. "I hate to say it, but it looks like we're split for now… But rather than sitting here and thinking of what to do, how about we each go our own way? Maybe this way we can find the relic even faster!"

"The worm's right" Albel agreed as he started walking towards the path. "We don't have much of a choice. We'll go our own ways, and see who gets there first."

"…Alright then. Farleen, Lancar, Roger… take care. We'll meet you later" Clair said, as she followed Albel to the hallway.

"You too, Lady Clair! Be careful!" Farleen yelled back.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Split in Aquatic Gardens**

"Hmm…" Farleen mumbled in thought. "I hope Lady Clair is going to be all right…"

"She will be fine, don't worry." Lancar reassured her, "It's not like she's alone or anything; she's also with Albel. With those two together, they won't have too much trouble."

"Them being together is EXACTLY the problem!" Farleen yelled back in frustration. "UGHH! Just thinking about what happened with them last time, how can I not worry?" (Referring to the Peterny event, of course.)

"Huh? What do you mean?" Lancar asked, confused.

"NOTHING! Forget about what I said…" Farleen said adamantly. "Anyways, this path over on the left doesn't seem to be leading to anything… so many of the paths are dead end, too."

"Just follow me, the experienced adventurer!" Roger claimed proudly as he started walking ahead. "If my senses are telling me correctly, we should be going that way!" He said as he pointed to the path on the right, which had the arch structure at the entrance.

"Might as well, let's try it." Lancar agreed as he walked along.

The group entered the room, which had many different paths leading out, but also had another path blocked off by one of those fences. Farleen went over close to it, as she examined what was on the other side closely.

"By looking over on the other side, I think that's where we are supposed to go" Farleen told the others. "But it's blocked off by this fence… I wonder if there is a device somewhere that will open this thing?"

"Take a look here!" Roger said, looking at a green panel on the floor. "You think this thing might trigger it? I mean, it enabled the fence before, maybe it can work other way around, too!"

"We might as well try it" Lancar agreed, as he stepped on the panel. Suddenly, magical blocks began appearing everywhere in the room, sealing the pathway to the fenced pathway. However, the fencing that was once blocking the path ahead also disappeared.

"!" Lancar reacted, surprised. "What's this? Another trap? Actually, this seems more like a puzzle… it seems that the fence over on the other side disappeared, but now these blocks are in the way… and it looks like each blocks only move in a certain direction."

"Awww, drats!" Farleen complained. "I HATE puzzles! But I guess we're gonna have to crack it!"

"Okay, leave this to me, I know exactly what to do! Okay, first, you have to move that blue block to the right, then…" Roger said as Farleen quickly interrupted him.

"No, no… I think we have to first move that white block up, THEN move that blue block to the right…" She said, thinking hard about which block to move where.

"NO! NO! Trust me! I have skill when it comes to these things! We have to move that blue block to the right first!" Roger complained back, sure of his judgement. "Just trust the leader, and everything will be all right!"

"A leader? What are you talking about! You're not the leader!" Farleen complained.

"Of course I am! Pshh… what… who did you think the leader was? YOU?" Roger replied sarcastically.

"HOW RUDE! For your information, I got the highest leadership grades among the Crimson Blades according to Lady Clair!" Farleen shot back. "And what do YOU know, anyway?"

"Ohhh boy…" Lancar sighed as he as put his hand on his forehead, shaking his head. "kids, kids, settle down, now. I think I know what to do"

"Huh? I'm NOT a kid!" Farleen retorted. "And what do you mean? You know what to do here?"

"Well, I do have my quad scanner here with me," Lancar said as he took out his scanner from his pocket. "I can analyze each of the block's data to see which direction each blocks will move and how far they'll move. Once I analyze them all, the computer can calculate the exact moves we have to take with each of the blocks so we can reach that path on the other side."

"WOW! It can do that?" Roger asked.

"Really? That's amazing!" Farleen agreed.

"It sure can. Just wait for a little bit till I analyze each of the blocks… uh huh… okay… all right, it's done. Okay, here's what we have to do guys. First, move that Yellow block on the right up, then…" Lancar told Farleen and Roger as they began moving around the blocks.

Thanks to Lancar's Quad Scanner, the blocks were moved precisely so that the clear pathway was made towards the path over on the other side. "All right! We cleared the way… so lets keep moving." Lancar said.

As the three made their way along the pathway, they eventually reached another room, one that was much bigger than the rest of the rooms they've been to so far. There was a fence on the other side of the room, which led to some sort of a portal. Over on the right side of the room was a switch.

"Let's hit that switch over there…" Farleen said. "I think we're almost there now!"

Farleen hit the switch, and the fence on the end of the room disappeared. However, they were also greeted with a voice coming from above them.

"INTRUDER…ALERT…INTRUDER…ALERT… TERMINATE ALL INTRUDERS!" The object said as it descended below to face the group. It was a huge Sculpture, seemingly made entirely of stone.

"Crap… a guardian… okay guys, let's get ready to fight!" Lancar said as he got into his fighting pose.

"Alright! Let's do it!" Roger shouted as he got his Axes ready.

"I'm ready to go!" Farleen said as she held out her staff.

Lancar dashed at the Sculpture Lord as he began throwing series of punches and kicks. As each blow landed on the Sculpture, it made cracks to the surface a little bit, but not doing nearly enough damage. "Pretty tough, aren't ya!" Lancar taunted as he jumped up into the sky and his fists locked together, swinging it downwards at the monster. "HAMMER OF MIGHT!"

The qigong waves pushed back the Sculpture a little bit, but still not doing much damage.

"Hmph!… Pretty tough indeed…" Lancar commented as he gathered his breath.

Meanwhile, Roger started spinning around his Double-chained axe, and tossed it at the Sculpture Lord. "FIERY AXE!" The axe made a direct hit with the surface of the Sculpture, and only made a slight chip to the surface.

"Heh, not bad! But take this!" Roger said as he dashed forward. "CHARGE!" Roger went in head first into the Sculpture, only to bounce back from the impact and not doing slightest of damages. "OWWW!" Roger yelled in pain.

"Looks like I'm going to need a stronger spell for this one…" Farleen said as she began her spellcasting. "ENERGY ARROW!" She yelled as number of Dark Energy Arrows homed in into the Sculpture lord. With a loud impact, pieces of rocks broke off from the monster, surely damaged but far from being defeated.

"! No good…" Farleen exclaimed as she stepped back in surprise.

While the fighters all gathered themselves, the Sculpture Lord rose up slightly off the ground into the air. In its mechanical, robotic voice, it spoke out "STONE. RAIN!" Many pieces of rocks fell out of the Sculpture lord and fell on top of the group, first knocking them all down and then making them run for cover.

"SHIT! Crap, we can't damage this thing! The damn rock is too solid!" Lancar yelled out in frustration.

'Damn, it's the stone. It's too hard….' Lancar thought to himself 'think… what can weaken the structure of rocks?…! That's right!' Lancar looked up as an idea flashed before his mind.

"Farleen!" Lancar yelled to her as they ran away from the Sculpture lord's attacks. "You happen to know any spells that is… acidic?"

"Huh? Acid?… That's right! I do know one spell!" Farleen said as she stepped back into fighting position. "Buy time for me while I cast the spell!"

"Alright!" Roger yelled as it dashed towards the Sculpture Lord, hitting it with his Axe blows.

"Hey big hunk of rock! I'm here!" Lancar said as he taunted the Sculpture lord and started running away. The Sculpture fired numerous laser beams at Lancar, which he outran and dodged.

"It's ready!" Farleen yelled. "Move away from the monster!"

Farleen pointed at the Sculpture lord while number of dark clouds began gathering in the sky. "ACID RAIN!" she shouted as burning rain began showering down on the Sculpture lord. It smeared into the rocks and started weakening the structure of the monster.

"Okay! Roger, are you ready?" Let's hit it with all we got!" Lancar yelled to Roger.

"Gotcha!" Roger yelled as he began dashing towards the monster. "FLYING TORPEDO!"

Lancar stepped back, got into a three-point stance, and dashed forward across the battlefield at a lightning-quick speed with his elbow high up. "FIERY TACKLE!" he yelled as he hit the monster with the tackle at the exact same time with Roger's Charge.

With the double crushing impact, the Sculpture lord shattered, breaking down into thousand pieces. "We did it!" Farleen screamed in joy.

"Good job, guys." Lancar said, little out of breath. "Let's continue on up those stairs."

The three warriors arrived in the room with the transporter, and stepped on it. With a blue flash, they disappeared, transporting to another place within the dungeon…

* * *

"There is no end to these stupid puzzles…" Albel complained. "And the enemies here are pathetically weak… bah…"

"That's a good thing." Clair said, as she cleared out the last block so they can make the pathway to the next room. "We want the least trouble as possible with the monsters, so that we won't run into any potential danger or harm. Especially with our group split up as we are now… remember, we are not here to fight."

"Hmm, boring, aren't you? I looked forward to getting at least some type of challenge, but I guess I'm not getting any of that here." Albel sighed.

"I guess you're a true warrior type…" Clair said. "Personally, I don't enjoy fighting, and I avoid it unless we really have to. I do it purely for mission purposes, or protecting myself and my comrades…"

"Hah… how weak…" Albel sneered. "Your so-called comrades are just getting in your way, and are not necessary. They're merely a distraction…I've never cared for dumb things like that."

"Oh, have you not now?" Clair questioned him, with a serious face. "Nel told me once about what happened at the Kirlsa Training Facility two years ago… that you showed up to save Fayt and the rest at the same time as her. If you didn't care for your comrades, then why did you come to their rescue?"

"!… Bah… What nonsense! I didn't come to their rescue! I just merely spared their life so that I can finish those worms off myself one day… I wasn't going to let those Vendeenis have them! In MY turf at that!" Albel replied back at her, annoyed.

"Is that really so?" Clair asked, smiling a little bit. "Somehow, I really can't believe that was your reason."

"Hmph! Believe what you want, then!" Albel retorted, as they arrived in a large room with fencing on the other side, as well as a switch on the right.

"Looks like we're finally here." Albel said, walking up to the switch. "Let's get that relic and get the hell out of this place."

As Albel pushed the switch, the fence on the end of the room disappeared. However, at the same time, they heard a women's voice.

"Intruders…" the voice murmured. "Begone from our sacred sanctuary, mechateers from Greeton…"

"Huh?" Clair said in surprise. "But we're not – "

"I am the embodiment of _Sirvia_, the protector of the land of Aquor." The voice continued, as a beautiful Woman in a white hooded dress came down from above. "You are not getting our sacred treasure. I, the protector of this land and this sanctuary, will now punish you intruders from Greeton… For all the pain you have caused to this land… I shall annihilate you for all your sins!"

"_Sirvia I_? The legendary Heroine?… But we are not from Greeton! Please, you have to listen to us!" Clair pleaded.

"You are not getting our treasure…" Sirvia continued. "Die, intruders!"

"This scum just won't listen… heh, fine, I'm just going to have to teach her a painful lesson then." Albel replied happily, reaching back for his katana.

"But!…" Clair hesitated.

"BEGONE!" Sirvia yelled as she opened her palm and shot at Clair and Albel with a blinding flash of light energy. Both fighters dodged the blast, just barely.

"Forget about reasoning with that women, just attack!" Albel yelled at Clair as he lunged forward at Sirvia to attack. He slashed at her furiously with his Katana, but missed as she simply flew up in the air backwards.

"AIR SLASH!" Albel yelled as the wind blast from his rapid Katana swing homed in at Sirvia. However, she simply neutralized the blast with her palm.

"Damn!" Albel cursed. "She's tough, she's not like the rest…"

"Hah!" Clair yelled as she tossed her twin daggers at Sirvia while charging it with the power of ice. "ICE DAGGERS!" The daggers were simply deflected back by Sirvia without much effort.

"Let's attack her from both sides, she can't block our attacks that way!" Albel yelled, as he got ready to attack her from his side.

"Alright!" Clair complied.

"One, two, NOW!" Albel yelled as both him and Clair charged at Sirvia from opposite sides. However, while running up, Clair's foot caught a crack on the floor and she fell down on the floor. "Ah!…" Clair yelled as she stumbled.

"!" Albel reacted as he hesitated for one split second, glancing over to Clair.

That split second hesistation was enough for Sirvia to finish charging up her attack. She raised her hand up high in the air, charging it with her powers of sacred energy. "DIE, intruders!" she yelled as she thrusted her hand towards Albel. "SACRED ETHER!"

The Quick, powerful Ether blast was fast for Albel to dodge. The blast hit Albel squarely on the chest and exploded, knocking him tens of meters backwards. "GWAAAAAAAAAAA!" Albel let out a blood-curdling scream in pain as his body hit the floor in a loud thud.

"ALBEL!" Clair yelled as she got up from the floor, running up to Albel fallen on the floor. The blast had burned right through Albel's armour, creating a nasty burn wound on his chest.

"gahh…ah... ahh…." Albel struggled as he began to lose consciousness. "Albel, NO! Get up! Answer me!" Clair shouted as she arrived to his side.

"Stay still!" Clair told Albel. "I'm going to cast a healing spell!" Clair began her spellcasting, positioning both of her hands near Albel's wound. "HEALING!"

Albel, who almost lost his consciousness completely, felt something warm and comfortable flowing over his wound. After few seconds, the wound had been completely sealed up, Albel's body feeling like he had just woken up from a long sleep.

"Wha… what? Why did you?" Albel asked Clair, stunned at the sequences of events that just happened.

"You were hurt badly, I had to - " Clair started answering, only to be interrupted by another energy blast from Sirvia that she had been charging the whole time. The energy blast hit Clair squarely on the shoulder. "AHHHHHHH!" Clair cried as the blast knocked her back in extreme pain. Albel stared at Clair in the air, flying back, and then finally hitting the floor. At that exact moment, something snapped in his head.

"Wha…. WHHYYYYY YOU!" Albel yelled at Sirvia, overcome by fury. "GWAAA! DIE! SCUM!"

Albel pointed his palm towards Sirvia, charging it with massive qigong energy. "TAKE THIS!" Albel yelled. "PALM OF DESTRUCTION!" The energy ball homed in towards Sirvia, creating a spectacular explosion upon impact.

However, Sirvia had simply flown up to avoid the energy blast just in time, raising her hand once again to charge her Sacred Ether attack. "Die, intruder!" She yelled as she pointed at where Albel was.

But Albel was nowhere to be found. Albel then appeared out of nowhere above and behind Sirvia with his katana held over his head with two hands, with Sirvia completely oblivious to what was transpiring.

"HIYAAA!" Albel cried as he swung his Katana downwards at top of Sirvia's head with extreme force. "HEAD SPLITTER!"

As Albel's swing continued downwards, it sliced through top of Sirvia's head like hot knife through butter, all the way down, splitting her body in half. Her split corpse hit the floor, then disappearing into thin air.

"Huff… huff…cough" Albel gathered himself, tired out from his sequence of attack. However, before he could gather his breath completely, he glanced over at Clair, on the floor and not moving.

"!" Albel reacted as he rushed to Clair's side. "HEY!" Albel yelled in panic. "Wake up! Get up!"

"Is… the battle… ov… er?" Clair asked in faint voice.

"It's over. Enough about that, GATHER YOURSELF!" Albel yelled.

"I'm…. glad… you're all…right…" Clair struggled to say, as she tried to get up.

"Why the hell did you do that for?" Albel asked in anger. "There was no reason to heal me! Putting yourself in harm's way like that, what's wrong with you?"

"Be… cause…" Clair answered, struggling, "You… were… bad.. ly… hurt… I had… to heal…" she murmured as Albel held her up, around his arms.

"There wasn't any need to…. HEY!" Albel reacted as Clair began losing her consciousness.

"I… wanted… to…" Clair said faintly, as her head tilted sideways, passed out.

"…" Albel went silent, as he picked up Clair in his arms, standing in thought for a while. After a few seconds, he gathered himself, and walked over to the room with the transporter. He stood over it, as they disappeared in a blue flash.

* * *

Lancar, Farleen, and Roger appeared with a blue flash in a room that had another transporter on the other side, and also at the bottom of the room. On the top of the room was an Altar, with triangular relic glowing crimson red. Few seconds after their arrival, Albel also appeared, with Clair in his arms.

"L... LADY CLAIR!" Farleen yelled, as she rushed over to Clair's side. "Answer me, Lady Clair! Wake up!"

"…" Albel stood quietly, not saying anything.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? WHAT DID YOU DO?" Farleen yelled at Albel in rage.

"…She got hurt in battle. She's just passed out, don't worry. She's not mortally wounded…" Albel replied quietly.

"Yeah… she's still breathing fine… but that's a bad wound" Lancar said, examining Clair's condition. "She should be fine, but still, we should get her to a doctor quickly as possible."

"Errrrr!" Farleen growled in frustration. "It's times like this I wish I knew a healing spell…"

"Yeah, we need to get her some treatment, quick!" Roger replied. "Let's get that relic and get out of here!"

Albel walked over to the Altar, and collected the third relic. Their mission here was finally done.

"Let's go." Albel said, as he walked over to the portal on the South of the room.

With a flash of Blue light, they disappeared, and then reappeared at the entrance of the Garden.

"Okay, we're finally out of here!" Farleen said. "Let's get to Aquios, quick!"


	4. Part 4: Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean 3.**

**Chapter 11: A Day's rest in Aquios**

"She'll be all right now…" The doctor told the group in Clair's room in Aquios, as she completed her prolonged healing treatment on Clair. "Just give her a little time to rest, and you can be on your way again tomorrow morning."

"Thank you doctor!" Farleen said in gratitude. "You're certainly the best doc here in Aquios!"

"Thank you, I'm certainly flattered, although I don't think I did that much here" The doctor replied humbly, "Why don't you all just relax for a while as well, out in the city? Lady Clair will need to rest alone for a while…"

"Sure thing." Lancar answered, as he started walking out of the room "Let's step out."

The group exited out the main gates of the Castle, out to the City of Aquios – A beautiful, sunny, gleaming with sacred aura as it always has been. It was mid afternoon, and people were busy with their days' activities out on the main street.

"I'm glad we got here just in time!" Farleen said, turning to Albel, her smile quickly turning upside down. "Now, HOW did she get hurt? You were supposed to protect her! I knew you couldn't be trusted!"

"…" Albel stayed quiet without replying to what Farleen was yelling at him.

"Hey now, it's only natural that people get hurt in the battlefield" Lancar told Farleen, trying to calm her down. "I'm sure they ran into a really tough monster, if it was strong enough to hurt Clair like that. Don't be too tough on the guy."

"He's right!" Roger agreed. "I'm sure Albel didn't just sit back and let her get hurt like that… look at his armour…he got hurt too! I'm sure it was just a tough monster…"

"Errr… I guess." Farleen answered, turning her head away from Albel with a frown.

As the party continued walking down the streets of Aquios, a loud been could be heard from Lancar's pockets. "_BEEP… Lancar… do you read me…"_

"Huh?" Lancar reacted. "Must be the communicator, hold up for a second, guys." Lancar stopped as he reached into his pocket to take out his communicator.

"Lancar Douglas, Federation Personnel ID #22764, over. Do you read?" Lancar spoke.

_"Hey Lancar… this is Cliff… how's everything going along?" _Cliff asked Lancar over the Communicator.

"How ya doing Captain? Yeah, everything is going according to plan." Lancar told Cliff, "We're just resting in Aquios for now. We'll be heading off to the last place pretty soon, and after that, we should be able to enter the Daemoneum right away."

_"Really? That's excellent. I'm glad the things are going smoothly… because it looks like you guys will have to reach that Demon Place as soon as possible."_ Cliff told Lancar.

"Things are getting worse out there, huh?" Lancar asked in serious, concerned voice.

_"Yeah… unfortunately the numbers of demons out there have really increased since the last time I talked to ya."_ Cliff said. "_There have been new reports of Demons arising elsewhere in the universe. New sightings have been confirmed at Fargett, Rondo Lukia and Hyda… and the situation in other planets are getting worse. Sorry you tell you this, but Klaus IV has been ordered to be evacuated completely… there's way too many of them there…"_

"WHAT? But!" Lancar yelled with a really serious, concerned look on his face.

_"Don't worry. Your wife and daughter are safe! They've been evacuated to Klaus III already, in Mirage's care, so they should be fine." _Cliff assured him. "_They're in good hands, so just concentrate on your mission." _

"Phew… good to hear that, Captain." Lancar sighed in relief. "By the way, any new information on where Maria might be?"

_"Actually, we just received this new information couple hours ago… she's apparently been sighted in Planet Edifice." _Cliff answered.

"Edifice? That's another Underdeveloped Planet… Wonder why she is there… breaking Federation Law like that…" Lancar commented. "Is this true?"

_"We're on our way there to find her right now."_ Cliff replied. "_Hopefully we won't be too late, and find her. Anyways, don't worry about her… we got that covered. Just focus on your mission! That's the most important one!"_

"Yes, Chief." Lancar replied back. "Take care, and don't worry about us, we'll be alright."

_"Wish I had been there to help ya guys out, but I can't just abandon my post in situations like this… sorry about that. Anyways, I'll contact you again if anything happens. See you later." _Cliff said, signing out.

"Same here. Take care." Lancar replied, communication over and out.

"…They're increasing, huh?" Albel asked.

"Yeah, so let's end this thing as quickly as possible." Lancar replied, determined.

"But for now, we can't really do much until Lady Clair recovers fully…" Farleen said, running up ahead. "So let's just take things easy for now… We're gonna need to relax a little bit if we're gonna enter that Cave of Greeton place tomorrow!"

As Farleen and the group walked up ahead, she met up with a merchant walking ahead selling various accessories and charms. Fascinated by his inventory, she ran upto him, with rest of the group following behind her.

"Wow! Look at all these things! They're soooo pretty!" Farleen commented. "Is that… Palmira's wishing charm? Oh my!"

"Sure is! The rarest of the rare… Palmira's wishing charm… made 100 from Palmira flowers straight out of Mountain of Gods!" The merchant answered her question proudly. "You're not going to find these anywhere else these days! So how about it, Miss?"

"Wow!… Maybe I can get this for Lady Clair! I know she's always wanted one… but these are soooo rare to find… how much is it?" Farleen asked the Merchant.

"Well this is really a rare item, but I'll sell it you for cheap, Miss!" The merchant said. "23,000 fol!"

"WHAAAAT? I don't have that kind of money…" Farleen hung her head despair. "All I got is around 2000 fol… do you guys have any money you can lend me?" She asked looking at Lancar and Roger.

"Sorry, Farleen… I don't carry any currency from this Planet…" Lancar said, with a shrug.

"I have… umm… 71 fol… if that helps… sorry… but that's all I have!" Roger said, gathering up coins from his pocket.

"Awwww…. I really wanted to get this for Lady Clair! She would have loved this… it's so rare too… but oh well…" Farleen said as she walked away in disappointment.

"…" Albel went along without saying a word, in some sort of thought.

* * *

"Ah…. Where is this?" Clair asked in a daze, getting up from her bed. "Where am I?" 

As she got up, the door opened as Farleen entered the room.

"Lady Clair!" Farleen said, rushing over to Clair's side. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm… fine Farleen, thank you… where are we?" Clair asked, still little drowsy.

"We're in Aquios… we came here so that we can heal you up!" Farleen said. "You were hurt pretty badly in Aquatic Gardens of Surferio…"

"Oh… that's right…" Clair replied, as she recalled what happened. "…Is everybody all right? How's Albel?"

"Everybody is fine… and Mr. Big jerk is fine and dandy, too" Farleen answered with little displeasure, still pissed off at Albel. "We'll rest up tonight, and head to Greeton tomorrow morning! That is if you're feeling alright…?"

"Yes I'll be fine… we'll leave tomorrow." Clair told Farleen.

"Yes ma'am! Um… wait a minute… Lady Clair, what's that?" Farleen asked she looked towards what was on top of the mini cupboard that was beside the bed. It was a Charm, made entirely of Palmira flowers.

"This is… Palmira's Wishing Charm?" Clair asked, surprised. "Why is this here? Farleen, did you buy this? You didn't need to…"

"No! It wasn't me… I mean, I was going to buy it for you because I know how much you love them, but then, it was so expensive so I couldn't…" Farleen replied, also in surprise.

"Who…" Clair pondered as she held the wishing charm in her hand.

* * *

"It's good to see that you've recovered, Clair. How are you feeling?" Queen of Aquaria asked Clair, in the throne room to have audience with the queen. 

"I've recovered fully. Thank you for your concern, your majesty." Clair replied, as she bowed. "Now that everybody is rested up, we shall resume our mission."

"Yes, Clair." The Queen replied. "We have received the authorization from the Greeton's government, so you will have access to the Cave of Greeton. Normally, they would have not co-operated with any nations in Continent of Gaitt or grant anybody access to their land… but they also realize the danger and the urgency of the current situation."

"Make your way over to the East side of Peterny, towards the sealed gate. You have been granted the permission to enter the Port of Peterny. Take the ferry across the ocean so that you can reach the continent of Greeton." Lasselle told Clair.

"Yes, Magistrate Lasselle. We will make our way at once, your Majesty." Clair said while bowing to both the Queen and Lasselle.

"Yes… I wish you good luck, Clair." The Queen said.

Clair exited the Castle, and walked towards the exit of the City where Albel, Lancar, Farleen and Roger were waiting. Everybody was rested, all ready to go.

"…I see that you have recovered." Albel said to Clair.

"Yes, I'm fully recovered, and ready to go." Clair replied. "Is everybody ready?"

"Ready to go as always." Lancar answered.

"Let's go!" Farleen replied excitedly.

"Let's go kick some demon butt!" Roger said with enthusiasm, raising his fist in the air.

"We end this now." Albel said. "Let's move out!"

The group all walked along the moonlit bridge, towards Irisa Fields. As they were walking, Clair walked near Albel with Palmira's Wishing Charm in her hand, about to ask him something.

"Albel… I have a question… Did you…" Clair asked, only to hesistate in continuing.

"…Um… never mind." She stopped, turning her head away.

"Hmph. You look so nervous." Albel said. "Don't tell me you're already afraid of the last battle before you're even there? How cowardly… remember, there is no stopping now… the only way to go is forward. Got that?"

"… Yes. You're right. Got it." Clair replied as she gave a slight smile. The group continued on along Irisa fields, towards Peterny to go to Greeton for the fourth and final relic.

**

* * *

Chapter 12: Greeton **

"So we go east from here, huh?" Lancar asked, as the group made their way towards the Eastern section of Peterny.

"Yes, we exit east from here, to reach the Port of Peterny." Clair replied as she walked towards the guards guarding the gate to the port. "This Port is usually only accessible to Special Kingdom Agents and spies. I've been here only once, myself."

As Clair and the rest walked towards the gate, the guards greeted the group. "Welcome, Lady Clair! The preparations are ready. Please, this way." The guard said as the doors to the Port was opened. It was a very small, run down port, with only couple ships. This place indeed only existed for undercover purposes.

"We should be arriving in City of Greeton in approximately 2 hours." The Guard said, as everybody stepped inside the ferry. "We'll let you know when we are near, so please rest in the cabin for now and enjoy yourselves."

The party went inside the Cabin, and everybody made their own preparations. Clair started cooking up some food for the party, while Farleen helped her prepare them. Albel took out some smithing tools, tempering his sword so that it would be razor-sharp for the upcoming battles. Lancar took out his quad scanner and opened the Elicoor II database as he started reading up on things about history and technology of Greeton.

"So… Greeton is supposed to be an Technological Superpower on this planet, huh?" Lancar asked. "This should be interesting to see… to see how advanced the technology on this planet can actually be."

"Yes, they're supposed to have far superior technology compared to any other nations on this land." Clair replied as she stirred the fried rice that was cooking up on her frying pan. "Greeton invaded our continent many years ago with their army of mechanical soldiers, but their invasion failed when the great heroine _Sirvia I_ unleashed the power of Sacred Orb on them. Ever since then, they have been secluded, closing off all contacts with other nations. It should be interesting to see how much more their technology have developed since…"

"I've been there only once on a spying mission." Farleen said, as she cracked an egg onto the frying pan. "They had so many things that I'd never seen before… I couldn't recognize most of the things they were using at all!"

"Ah… I see…" Lancar replied. "Still, I'm sure they wouldn't be anything groundbreaking that I've never seen before… but I guess we're just going to have to wait and see."

"Hmph. It doesn't matter what they have." Albel replied, chiseling his katana's edge against a brick of steel. "I've seen the most advanced technology that the universe had to offer two years ago… and even then, it was nothing special, I still beat all of them. This time won't be any different."

"Ah, don't worry about anything like that, guys!" Roger said cheerfully, as he took out a harmonica. "Now, how about some music to get our spirits up? We Menodix are great with musical stuff, you know. Everybody relax and let the rhythm take you away!"

Roger started playing his harmonica, playing a loud, beautiful melody throughout the ferry and the ocean. Menodix truly did have a great talent in music.

"Gahhh…STOP THAT LOUD ANNOYING RACKET, FOOL!" Albel yelled, extremely annoyed.

"Ugh… yeah… please Roger… it's not like we don't like your music or anything, it's great! But sometimes a little peace and quiet is good too, you know…" Lancar said, also little annoyed from the sudden loud racket.

"Pshhh… gee… it's SOOO great to be appreciated!" Roger yelled back sarcastically.

"Hahaha… you guys don't have to be so mean…" Clair laughed as she served her newly made dish onto the plates for everybody to eat. A nervous vibe that would usually be expected to be felt around a group venturing towards a Demon Universe was definitely non-existent, as they neared the Port at the City of Greeton.

* * *

"Welcome, Gaittians" A Rock-like being greeted the group as they stepped out of the Ferry. "We have been expecting you. Please come this way to have an audience with his majesty." 

"Whoa… what the… they're… ROCKS?" Lancar asked in surprise.

"Shhh…" Farleen answered, putting her index finger to her mouth to tell Lancar to keep it down. "They're called Rockfolk. They originally descended from rocks, but are extremely intelligent."

"I see…" Lancar replied quietly, quite astonished, as they walked towards the City of Greeton.

City of Greeton was a large city with numerous building-like structures rising high above to the sky, that it looked somewhat like a modern-day city on Earth. It was definitely head and shoulders above any technology that Aquaria or Airyglyph had to offer. The group walked along, mesmerized by the contents of the city.

"Wow… damn… this is beyond anything that I could have ever imagined!" Lancar commented, impressed with what he saw. "The technology level here is easily from 300-400 SD at least! Wouldn't have thought anything like this would exist on this planet."

"Do not underestimate our level of science and knowledge, visitor from outer space." One Rockfolk guide told Lancar.

"HUH? How did you know I'm from outer space?" Lancar asked in surprise.

"We know much more than you people think we know. Judging by the green lines around your neck, you are a Klausian, correct?" The Rockfolk guide asked.

"How did you know that?" Lancar asked, even more astonished than before.

"Contrary to what you think, outsider, we have succeeded in reaching the outskirts of the galaxy long time ago" The guide explained. "Our technology is not far behind those of the Federation, young man. However, it is our belief that science should not be exploited, and that it should not be used for purposes of aggression and expansion, as it will only inevitably result in misfortune. We learned of this fact many years ago after the Aquor/Greeton war."

"…You have a very valid point." Lancar commented, as the party reached the building in which the King resides.

"Step on the transporter." The Guide told the group. "It will take you directly to his majesty's audience chamber."

Everybody stepped into the transporter, and with a blue flash, they transported directly into the audience room.

"Welcome, Agents of Gaitt and the Federation," The King of Greeton spoke in front of the group. "I've heard about the details, and have decided that this is indeed a very urgent situation. So I hereby grant you the access to the Cave of Greeton. However, there is another reason why I called you here."

"Thank you, your highness." Clair said with a bow. "But there is something else your highness would like to speak to us about?"

"Indeed," The King replied. "I summoned you here to warn you about the dangers that lie ahead in the Cave of Greeton."

"We have already been through many places already that is supposedly dangerous" Albel replied little cockily. "You don't need to worry about our safety, nothing on this planet poses any sort of problems for us."

"You are mistaken, Glyphian." The King replied as he began explaining. "Our ancestors hid away the relic of the Demons many years ago in the Cave of Greeton, assuming that it was never to be accessible again. The cave is filled with many top-class defense mechanisms and traps that would be overwhelming and dangerous even to warriors such as yourselves."

"Traps? Defense Mechanisms?" Roger asked. "Well… can't you just turn them off, your highness?"

"That is not possible." The King said. "The mechanisms were enabled out of our control many years ago, and unfortunately it is irreversible. Therefore, if you are to make your way through this dangerous cave, you must take extreme caution."

"Thank you, your highness," Lancar replied. "We'll make sure to take the uttermost caution, and succeed in this mission."

"Good luck to you all." The King said, as he motioned towards to his servants to give a scroll to Albel.

"What's this?" Albel asked.

"This is a map of Cave of Greeton. It may not be 100 percent complete, but it is better than nothing. Let it be of some use to you." The King said. "Our guides will now lead you to a transporter room, which will take you to the entrance of Cave. Once again, best of luck to you."

"Thank you kindly, your highness." Clair bowed as the group stepped out of the room. They walked down to the transporter room, transporting directly to the entrance of Cave of Greeton.

**

* * *

Chapter 13: Cave of Greeton and the final relic **

"Whoa! Look at this place…" Lancar commented as he looked around the surroundings of the Cave of Greeton. It was a dark, brownish cave just like how any ordinary cave would be, but installed with fluorescent lights – as well as many camera-like structures and guns on the walls.

"Alright… watch yourselves, don't any of you die before we get the Daemoneum." Albel said as he walked towards the group. "According to the map, we head straight then right from here… we're running to dodge all the blasts from their guns. LET'S MOVE!"

At his command, Lancar, Clair, Roger, and Farleen, along with Albel, all started dashing towards the fork ahead. The guns on the walls reacted to their movement and fired at them with pulse blasts, but did not succeed in hitting any of the 5 warriors who were running at superhuman speed.

"We turn right from here!" Albel yelled, as everybody took a right from the fork. However, in front of them were 4 mechanical robots, each armed with plasma rifles.

"Time to slice and dice some metal scraps," Albel said as he reached back for his refined Crimson Scourge Katana. "GET OUT OF OUR WAY, SCUMS!"

As Albel dashed towards the Robots, it fired numerous pulse blasts at incredible speed. Albel stopped dashing briefly, raised his palm towards the robot and yelled "AURA WALL!", creating a red shield of aura. The plasma blasts all deflected off the Aura Wall as Albel quickly dashed out of the harm's way. He jumped towards the monster with his katana swung back, as he charged it with immense amounts of electric energy. "LIGHTING BLADE!" Albel yelled as his Katana struck through the Metal surface of the robot, the electricity short-circuiting its internal hardware and blowing it up into smithereens.

Meanwhile, Clair pointed her index finger towards her forehead, as she began her spellcasting. After a few seconds of casting, she yelled "ANTI!" as the protective energy covered over all of the heroes. "Everybody will be safe for now… now let's attack!" Clair yelled out as she casted another spell, which was learned from her father. "SEA GATE!" A heraldic shark appeared along with blast of water, which soaked the robot from its head to toe and short-circuited it.

Lancar dashed towards the third Robot soldier as Clair's Anti magic deflected all the pulse shots that were shot at him. "ELECTRIC FISTS!" He yelled as Lancar threw three Hooks charged with power of electricity towards the Robot. The punches punctured through the robot's metal covering, dropping it like a piece of scrap metal.

"Alright, Roger! Let's get the last one!" Farleen yelled as she began her spellcasting. In a few seconds, she pointed her staff towards the final robot and yelled "THUNDER FLARE!" A ball of thunder appeared around the robot, stunning it with tremendous amount of shock. "Here I go!" Roger yelled as he whipped his Axe at the head of the robot. The Axe blast decapitated the robot, as it body fell down on the floor.

"That's all of them…" Albel commented. However, as soon as he said that, he saw about 20 other Mechanical soldiers walking towards the group "Or is it…" Albel commented, taking his word back.

"That's way too many!" Roger said. "We have to fight them ALL?"

"I'll get rid of them all at ONCE!" Farleen yelled. "Protect me, and you won't be sorry!"

The group fended off the attacks from the robots while Farleen began her spellcasting. After about a minute, she had finished her casting. "MOVE OUT!" She yelled.

"THUNDERSTORM!" Farleen yelled as Dark Clouds appeared over the crowd of robots. With a loud rumble of thunder, flash of rain poured down onto the robots, while the thunderbolts also struck at them. With that, the group of 20 robots went down in a heap of smoke in an instant.

"Good job Farleen!" Clair credited Farleen, "You're just getting better and better!"

"Heh… thank…you… Lady Clair…" Farleen responded while huffing, tired out from the spell.

"Alright!" Albel yelled. "Now to the left! Keep moving!"

The group eventually made their way towards the inner sections of the Cave. On the way, more robots and guns did pose some trouble, but were eventually destroyed by the heroes. Any wounds suffered by the party were taken care of by Clair's Healing spell. Eventually, they arrived at the marked spot on the map, which was a dead end.

"This is a dead end…" Albel commented. "What the hell is this… there is absolutely nothing here! Did that fool just lead us to some sort of a trap?"

"Well, he did say the map is not 100 accurate…" Lancar said. "Perhaps we need to look around more… Let's try exploring some other places."

"Hmph…" Albel grunted as he turned back, stepping towards the main road. However, as he walked forward, he stepped on small rock on the floor. It clicked down like a switch, and the entire floor just gave way and fell apart.

"AHHHHHH!" Everybody yelled as they fell down towards the deep inner spaces of the cave. After a few minutes, they all gathered themselves, recovering from the painful fall they just took.

"Bah… what was that…" Albel said as he struggled to get himself up. However, as he looked up, he saw an altar from the distance – carrying the glowing red triangular relic. They have finally found the final relic.

"That's the last one!" Albel yelled as he walked towards the altar to collect the relic. The others also walked towards the altar, realizing that they were minutes away from entering the Daemoneum.

However, as Albel inched close to the Altar, he was interrupted by a voice from above.

"Intruders from Aquor…" the voice echoed throughout the cave. "Leave our sacred treasure alone… or else you shall be punished…"

"Heh, you think we've come this far just to go back empty handed and listen to your crap?" Albel yelled back. "Show yourself so I can shut that mouth of yours!"

"Aquorians… must… DIE!" The voice said as a Mechanical being with 5 Snake-like heads descended down from above. "I, the Snake of Valeria, will now rid you and your Kingdom from this world. Begone!" Valeria yelled as his Snake-like heads shot towards the heroes. Everybody dove back just in time, but the impact the shooting heads made with the ground knocked everybody back to the wall.

"Gahh!" Albel yelled, as him and rest of the group dashed towards Valeria. However, as they were trying to get to close range to fight, it's head swept everybody away once again, too quick for anybody to get through. Everybody attempted to attack it using their long range moves, but it was ineffective or simply didn't do enough damage.

"Shit…" Albel cursed.

As the fighters gathered for their breath, Valeria gathered for its own maneuver. The snakeheads went into the ground, and out of nowhere, they shot out of the surface in front of the fighters. Albel, Lancar, and Clair all barely dodged the attack just in time, but Roger and Farleen were not as lucky – they were caught in the vicious thrust of the snakes and were sent crashing into the ceiling, dropping to the ground.

"AHHHHH…" Both yelled in pain as they crashed down from the ceiling, then passed out.

"Farleen! Roger!" Clair yelled out in concern, rushing to their side.

"Gahhh… damn snake…" Albel cursed as he got ready for something little more drastic. "Alright… listen you two. We can't get through this thing's body without taking care of these heads first. I'm going to take care of it… the two of you hit the body at the moment I do, got that?"

"Um… alright…" Lancar responded as he got ready.

"I'm ready!" Clair said, getting ready for another battle skill.

As the two got ready to strike at Valeria at the moment's notice, Albel charged his hands up for one of his own skill. He charged it with Qigong energy, but this time he added something else extra… this was a technique he learned while training with Crosell; as the power of the dragon spirits red aura gathered up in palm of his hands, he shot the aura up to the air then pointed towards the enemy.

"DRAGON ROAR!" Albel yelled, as Spirits of 5 Dragon heads emerged out of the energy ball and homed in towards each of Valeria's snakeheads. "GAAAHHHH!" The aura of the dragons burned each of the snakeheads, making each cry out in extreme pain.

At that precise moment, Lancar dashed towards the main body of the monster. He stood in front of the body, posing like as if there was a punching bag right in front of him. He yelled "FISTS OF FURY!" as he hammered its midsection away with countless rapid punches, as if he was attacking with hundred fists at the same time.

With Valeria locked down helplessly by Albel and Lancar, it was up to Clair to deal the finishing blow. Clair jumped high in the air, gathering herself into a ball of fire. She dove down at Valeria with both of her daggers crossed in an X shape, surrounded by massive fire energy. "SPICULE!" She yelled as her eventual impact burned down the main body of Valeria, leaving it in handful of ash.

"We got the bastard!" Albel yelled in triumph.

"We did it!" Lancar yelled, as Clair rushed back to Roger and Farleen's side. She began her spellcasting, and yelled "RESTORATION!" as the holy aura recovered their wounds and woke them up from their unconscious state.

"Wha… what happened?" Roger asked.

"Where… is the monster?" Farleen asked as well.

"It's over guys, don't worry." Clair said with a smile.

"It's not over yet." Albel remained adamant. "We have one more place to go."

"That's right." Lancar agreed as Albel began walking towards the Altar. He picked up the final Red Relic, and took out the other three from his pocket.

"Here it goes." Albel said, as he put the four relics together. With a flash of bright, reddish light, the four relics reacted to one another, merging into one single pyramid-shaped block. The pyramid block then shot out a powerful energy into the thin air, creating a dark, circular portal into the Daemoneum.

"No turning back now. Let's end it here." Albel said, as everybody jumped into the portal, into another dimension.

**

* * *

Chapter 14: To Another Space - Daemoneum **

Through the black hole, the group arrived in Daemoneum greeted by thunder and lightning. It was just a Large-Sized Continent floating around in middle of space, with many stars scattered across the dark sky.

"WHAT THE…" Lancar yelled out in surprise. "This… is Daemoneum?" he asked in disbelief as a loud noise of thunder interrupted the end of his sentence.

"This isn't anything like I would believed it would be…" Clair admitted. "I figured it would be a fiery place, full of devils and demons…"

"Well… that prediction was way off…" Roger said as he looked around the Daemoneum in amazement.

"It might not be the way we thought it would be… but it sure is just as scary… AHH!" Farleen reacted as she bolt of lightning and loud thunder made her yell out in fear.

"What do you think, Albel?" Clair asked Albel, as the portal energy gathered back into her hand into a Red pyramid block.

"... This… is… Daemoneum?" Albel asked, his face pale white and cold sweat dropping down the side of his face. Frozen and mortified, he started getting distorted flashbacks.

_'You've now signed your soul… ther… is no…back… out. Get… the… orb in the new… worl... DA…DAD! AHHHH! If you want… to liv… retri… orb'_

"AAHHH!" Albel yelled, as his memory was glitching out, torturing him from inside out.

"Albel! Are you alright?" Clair asked, rushing to Albel's side as he was on his knees from his mental breakdown. "What's wrong? Speak to me!"

"Gah… I'm… fine… come on, we gotta move…" Albel said, as he got up and walked up the road of the Daemoneum.

"…" Clair watched in silence with look of concern on her face. The party walked behind Albel's lead, through one of the many paths on the continent.

"You know… for a place called the Daemoneum, how come I don't see any demons?" Lancar wondered. "I thought this place would be more… hostile and dangerous, maybe?"

"Something seems strange…" Farleen commented.

"Wh…. What the hell is that thing?" Albel cried out, looking up in the sky ahead.

What Albel saw was a large, green, tower-like structure far up ahead.

"A Building, in a place like this?" Lancar wondered. "Is that… their home base?"

"That's the only explanation…" Albel said, his mind still giving minor memory flashes. "Gah… whatever, that has to be it! Let's go in there, slaughter the damn demons and get the hell out of this place!"

Suddenly, a chilling air surrounded the heroes as a voice came out from nowhere.

"Hmm… it is exactly as I thought. The reckless mortals are back." The voice said.

"…That voice!" Albel yelled, as he seemed to be recognizing the voice.

"Ah, that's right, I remember you. I believe I ran into your lowly presence in a dungeon some time ago" The voice said, as a man materialized in front of the heroes from thin air. "Allow me to introduce myself again… my name is Romero, King of the Dead, servant of the gods. I must admit, it is pretty surprising that lowly mortals such as yourselves have somehow reached this place. This is the first time it's happened in almost over 700 years"

"Ack! It's YOU, scum!" Albel yelled as he reached back for his katana. "Planning to run away again, fool? I won't let you go so easily this time!"

"Heh. How amusing. You mortals do not realize how futile your efforts in reaching our dimension is…" Romero continued. "I admire your courage for getting this far… but this is far as you go, weak mortals. Your destiny is towards destruction, and there is no changing your fate. Our plan is almost complete… and there is no way we will let you enter the Time and Space Lab."

"Time… and Space… Lab?" Lancar asked.

"That will be enough talking for today. It's time to eliminate you mortals … thinking back, another one of your kind tried to oppose me a while back. A red-haired women… too bad she didn't make for any sort of challenge for me. She wouldn't happen to be your comrade now, is she?"

"Ne…NEL!" Clair screamed in surprise. "How dare you capture her! Where is she? WHERE IS SHE?" she yelled at Romero, demanding an answer.

"Heh. Since you asked so kindly, I shall tell you. She's held in the Time and Space Lab as we speak. I must admit, you mortals do make for very interesting test subjects. Just like that other Blue-haired boy… who possessed quite an astonishing power from what I hear." Romero sneered, with an evil grin.

"FAYT!" Lancar yelled as he got ready for battle. "You release him and Nel, now!"

"Unfortunately, I can't do that, my apologies." Romero said as he rose high over the ground, as the demon sword Levantine appeared in his hands. "What I CAN do, however, is to end your pathetic lives right here, mortals. Time for your souls to burn in eternal flames!"

As soon as Romero finished his sentence, he took a gigantic swipe with his Levantine across the battlefield. The swipe created a humongous explosion on the ground, knocking everybody back like little insects.

"Gah… GAAAHHH!" Albel yelled as he got up and charged at Romero. "DIE, SCUM! DOUBLE SLASH!"

Albel's powerful Katana strikes swung up and down across Romero's body. However, even though they were supposed to make a precise hit, the swings didn't hit anything at all; as if he just swung at thin air.

"How pathetic." Romero said, amused by Albel's ineffectiveness. "Like I have said, your efforts are futile. You mortals cannot harm somebody such as myself."

"We'll see about that!" Lancar yelled as he charged at Romero in a blinding flash. "FIERY TACKLE!"

Lancar dove right onto the body of Romero shoulder first expecting a hard impact. However, all he did was pass right through him, as if he wasn't even there. "WHAT THE HELL?" Lancar cursed, surprised at what just happened.

"HURRICANE AXE!" Roger screamed as he threw both sets of his Axe at Romero in a whirling hurricane. However, once again, the attack went right through him.

"Wha… what's going on?" Roger asked in bewilderment.

"FLYING GUILLOTINE!" Clair yelled, as she threw her daggers together at Romero like a chainsaw. The attack flew into Romero, spun around countless times, while not doing even the slightest of scratches to him.

"Im…impossible…" Clair said, flabbergasted.

"Let's see if he can avoid a Runology spell!" Farleen yelled as she charged up her spell.

"This should be interesting…" Romero said, confident and ready to take it head on.

"Take this! EXPLOSION!" Farleen yelled as the ground where Romero stood exploded in one gigantic ball of flame. The devastation of the explosion rocked throughout the Daemonium, as nothing seemed to be standing behind the cloud of smoke.

"I got it!" Farleen yelled in excitement.

"Heh… sorry for disappointing you." Romero said as he emerged out of the exploded grounds without even a scratch. "One spectacular spell however… I must admit."

"Wha… h…how?" Farleen asked, her voice trembling in fear.

"Enough playing with you mortals. It's time to end your lives right here!" Romero said, as he held up his Levantine as a powerful dark aura gathered around him. "DIMENSION…DOOR!" He yelled as he disappeared into thin air, appearing in front of everybody at the exact same time the split second later, to deal a devastating blow of void energy to everybody with a single swipe of his sword.

"AAHHHHHH!" Everybody yelled in pain as the energy downed everybody without much effort, unable to get up at all. Romero had beaten them with one single attack.

"Ga…gahh… why… why can't we… hurt… him…?" Albel asked in despair, on the brink of passing out.

"Oh my… I'm quite astonished at these new powers, myself." Romero commented. "So he wasn't lying… this is the real thing. He indeed is a god."

"Wha…what… wh… who?" Clair pondered, as she reached in for something in her pocket.

"I have become just too powerful for any of you mortals to pose any kind of threat." Romero said, getting ready to attack again. "Sorry for being too hard on you, but now it is time for you to be eliminated. Begone to eternal darkness!" He yelled as he charged up for another attack.

"No…!" Clair yelled faintly as she took out the red pyramid block. The black portal opened, and the entire party disappeared into thin air, missing the devastation of Romero's attack by a millisecond. However, from the impact of the attack, the portal closed itself prematurely and the red block was left behind in the Daemoneum.

"What? Damn… I missed them." Romero said in disappointment as he walked up to the block, picking it up.

Suddenly, another voice was heard out of thin air, behind where Romero was standing.

"Very disappointing, Romero. Even against the lowly mortals, you couldn't finish the job." The voice taunted at him.

"Heh… no need to worry about those mortals, Saphiro." Romero claimed. "You saw what happened here just now… even if they were to enter again… and I assure you that they won't…" He said as he shattered the Pyramid block into pieces in his hands.

"…No mortals, even the strongest of their kind, can hurt us anymore." Romero continued. "He have indeed granted us with godlike powers."

"It seems so…" Saphiro agreed, as he appeared in front of Romero. He had long white hair, with a pair of black wings on his back, and dressed in a black robe.

"Let's continue our plan, then." Romero said, as he glided towards the entrance of the Time and Space Lab. "It's just a matter of time before the mortal world becomes ours."

"Yes, indeed." Saphiro said. "But I have one concern… that boy… something tells me I've seen him from somewhere before…"

"You must be kidding me… he posed no threat at all." Romero said. "Besides, who knows where in the universe they might be at now. Even if they make their way back here somehow, they stand no chance."

"Heh. You are right indeed, my friend." Saphiro agreed, as he disappeared and appeared ahead at the entrance of the lab. "Let us continue on, then."


	5. Part 5: Chapters 15, 16, 17

**Chapter 15: A mystery challenger**

"LANCAR! Do you read? Lancar, are you there? Over!" Cliff asked frantically over the communicator in the New Diplo while his assistants tried their best to establish connection.

"No good, Captain…" One assistant said. "There is nothing but static, and no sort of connection whatsoever."

"Damn, how is that so?" Cliff asked. "Our ship is equipped with the best communication devices available! We should have been able to gotten through to them hours ago!"

"Cliff… maybe they're still in Daemoneum?" Sophia said with concern. "Maybe they're not back yet…"

"But we talked to them last over two days ago! If everything went according to plan, they should have been out of there hours ago…" Cliff said with a sigh. "There mission should have been complete… don't tell me they didn't make it out?"

"It's probably taking them longer than expected…" Sophia replied. "We can't give up hope, Cliff. We all know how strong they are… I'm very sure that they're safe!"

"Shit…" Cliff cursed in disgusted voice as he walked away from the static that was coming from the communicator. "We better hope that you're right…"

"Captain! We got new information from Edifice… Edifice… has been completely destroyed!" an Assistant yelled in panic. "We're getting no response from the investigation team that went down there hours ago... we've… lost signal…"

"WHAT?" Cliff yelled, "I know it was an Underdeveloped Planet, but how can they take it out so quickly?"

"It looks like the demons took control of the planet's own defense system technologies…" the Assistant replied. "Edifice was known to have many ancient ruins with traces of advanced technology… It is our belief that the demons manipulated them to use it against their own planet…"

"No… Maria…" Sophia muttered in disbelief.

"Captain! Intelligence team in the Vanguard system reports that there's been new sighting of Demons confirmed in Vanguard III!" Another Assistant reported. "Our ships have been forced to retreat from Hyda system… there's too many of them… and Expellian forces have been forced to retreat to the Cross continent! It's matter of time before they're done for! They're… everywhere!"

"Oh no…." Sophia said in very concerned voice, both her hands covering her mouth.

"DAMN!" Cliff cursed again. "This is even worse than what happened two years ago! Come on! Lancar… Where are you?"

* * *

"Ugh…" Clair moaned as she slowly opened her eyes to the blazing sunshine high above in the sky. "What… where…" She wondered as she looked around. 

"Ah… What happened…" Albel asked as he got up from the ground full of sand. "And where the hell are we…"

"Err… is everybody okay…" Farleen asked as she got up also, helping Roger up to his feet.

"Damn… so where did that demon go?" Lancar asked as he got up to look around. What he saw was completely different from what they have remembered seeing moments ago; they were in middle of an Island surrounded by a deep blue sea and ocean waves, with the sand on its ground glittering from the sunshine that was coming down from the clear blue sky.

"How the hell… did we get _here_?" Albel asked, totally confused.

"I… I did open the gates of the transporter again, when we were beaten by that demon…" Clair said. "He was about to deal the critical blow… I had to get us out of there, or we would have been…"

"That's okay!" Roger said with confidence. "We just have to go back in there again then! And this time we'll beat him!"

"I… I don't have the relic anymore!" Clair said in surprise as nothing was found in her hand or in her pocket. "It's not on the ground… did we lose it?"

"WHAT?" Albel yelled in disgust. "You mean we can't go back in there again, and we're just stuck here in this little Island that we have no idea about? Gah!"

"Where are we…" Farleen asked… "We're back in our dimension… but shouldn't we be in Greeton still? Why are we on some Island?"

"…Damn… no response." Lancar cursed, as he tried to contact Cliff via his communicator. "I've lost signal with Cliff… what's happened to them… even if they went to Edifice, the connection should be fine…"

"That demon…" Clair pondered in thought. "Why couldn't we hurt it? It was as if… he wasn't even there… we stood no chance from the start."

"Beh… it's because we weren't coordinated in our attacks!" Albel was convinced. "He just probably avoided all our attacks with an illusion or some type of fake image. He was able to hurt us, so we should be able to hurt him!"

"Well… he looked pretty real if you ask me…" Lancar said. "I don't think it was much of our own fault, but rather his strength and skill… he downed all of us with one single blow."

"Hmph!… he won't stand a chance next time, and when I do meet him next, I won't leave the bloody place until I have his head!" Albel said confidently.

"But how are we going to fight him again?" Farleen asked. "The relics are gone… we have no way to enter the Daemoneum… we are still not even sure of where we are right now!"

"Yeah… we need to get out of here for now! Then we'll think about… huh?" Roger stopped mid-sentence as he noticed a sound coming from something behind the rocks. He had heard a human voice.

"Wha…. There are _people_ here? I didn't know there was anybody else that came to this Island except for me…" The voice said as the mystery man came out to show himself. He was a young teenager about Albel's height, with spiky blue hair, a shoulder pad with cape draping down from it, as well as a sword attached to his belt.

"Who are you people?" The mysterious teenager asked. "Hmm… you guys are all armed… don't tell me you guys come here to train, too? I thought _I_ was the only one!"

"To train?" Clair asked.

"Enough babbling, worm." Albel said, as he reached back to his Katana. "You just tell us where we are right now, and I might spare your life… or if not, I'll be happy to force it out of you before killing you."

"Albel, you didn't have to say that… there is no need to fight!" Clair said, as she tried to intervene.

"Huh? Are you serious? Are you guys stranded or something? And that sword… you guys are fighters too, eh…" The mysterious teenager said, thinking about something for a second. "Perfect! I'll make a deal with you; if you beat me in a duel, then I'll tell you where we are!" The mysterious teenager challenged Albel, reaching back and unsheathing his Long Sword with excitement.

"Heh… another maggot that doesn't know his place," Albel sneered as he got ready for battle. "Fine, I suppose I can play with you for a while until you are in pain and begging me to stop."

"So that's a yes? Alright! You sure do look like a true fighter… don't disappoint me now!" The blue-haired teenager said as he charged towards Albel. "Then let's GO!"

"SHUT UP, WORM!" Albel yelled as he also charged toward at the boy. "KYAAA!"

Albel and the blue-haired teenager furiously exchanged numerous blows with their swords, matching each other slash by slash. Whatever Albel threw at the boy, he blocked, and whatever the boy threw at Albel, Albel blocked as well.

"… Whoa! You're not bad!" The teenager complimented Albel as he blocked another slash from Albel with his sword. "Haven't met anyone with your level of skill in ages!"

"Gahh… quiet, you!" Albel yelled, frustrated but certainly impressed at the level of the boy's skill as well. Eventually, he cornered the boy against the wall, seemingly in total control.

"Not bad, I admit," Albel said, readying to strike at the boy. "but you got nowhere to go now, worm. Now answer our question before I really kill you!"

"Heh… you haven't won YET!" The boy said as he slipped something down at Albel's feet without moving his arms or legs at all. It hooked itself up around Albel's ankles then pulled, tripping him and throwing him down on the ground.

"Gah… how dare you…" Albel cursed as he got up again. "Now I'm really going to… what the HELL?…" Albel yelled in surprise as he stared down at the blue-haired boy. There was something extending out from behind the man, something long and… furry.

"A Tail?" Roger yelled in surprise. "He has a tail?"

"I sure do. So what?" The mysterious boy said cockily as he jumped back and got ready for another attack. "You know what, you're pretty good…"

"So I think I'm gonna get pretty serious now. I'd dodge this if I were you… or you might really get hurt!" The boy said as he held his sword high and back, then slashing it towards where Albel was standing over in the distance. "AIR SLASH!"

"…WHAT?" Albel yelled in disbelief as he dodged the wind blast just in time, "How the hell?"

"Did… did he just do what I thought he did?" Lancar asked to rest of the group. "That's the same technique that Albel uses!"

"Crap, he dodged it! He really IS good!" the boy said in disappointment.

"I don't know how you managed to do that… but THIS is how you do it!" Albel yelled as he swung his katana back and slashed towards the boy. "AIR SLASH!"

"HUH?" The boy yelled as he jumped up to avoid the wind blast barely. "How… how do you know that technique?"

"Time to finish you, fool!" Albel yelled as he ran towards the boy with sword ready to strike.

"Err… take this!" The boy also yelled as he charged towards Albel also.

"DOUBLE SLASH!" Albel yelled, at the exact time the boy yelled "TWIN SLASH!". Both fighters made the powerful up-and-down swinging motion with their sword, canceling out each other's blows.

"What the?" Albel yelled again in bewilderment.

"How… how can you know… Okay, that's enough! Time out! Stop the fight!" The Blue-haired teenager said as he stopped fighting.

"Hmph! Backing out?" Albel taunted as the boy stepped back, his tail wagging in excitement and curiousity.

"Yeah… whatever… let's say you won then. But I have a question…" The boy asked. "How do you know those skills?"

"My old man taught me how to fight when I was young," Albel answered. "But that has nothing to do with the matter at hand. Tell us where we are, fool."

"From your father? So is he a top rank Federation Official or something?" The boy asked again. "Not many people these days know about the Edarlken sword style… only a privileged few can learn it!"

"Edarl…ken?" Albel asked. "What the hell is that?"

"Hey kid, did you say… Federation? How do you know about that?" Lancar asked.

"Err… you guys joking or something? Of course I know… who doesn't?" The boy said, confused on why Lancar asked the question. "You guys really have no idea where you are, huh? Fine… I'll tell you where we are… we're on a Deserted Island southeast of Sylvalant. I usually come here to train."

"Syl…valant?" Where is that?" Clair asked. "A city in Greeton?"

"Greeton?... I have no idea what you're talking about…" The boy said. "You guys are REALLY lost huh? Did your spaceship crash here or something? If it did, then you're on Planet Roak, for your information."

"ROAK?" Lancar asked in disbelief. "We're on… Roak?"

"Yes you are…" the boy said. "Oh, yeah, where are my manners… my name is Raditz Farrence by the way. Pleased to meet ya all."

* * *

**Chapter 16: A new plan**

"So let me get this straight…" Lancar asked, as everybody gathered under the blazing sun. "You mean we just traveled couple hundred light years, here… to Roak… instantly, just like that?"

"I don't really know about traveling instantly or anything," Raditz answered, "but this is definitely Roak… I can assure you. Where are YOU guys from, anyway?"

"Well, I'm a Klausian, myself," Lancar answered. "But rest of the group here are Elicoorians… they come from the Planet Elicoor II."

"Klausians, I've heard of, but… Eli…coor you say?…. I've never ever heard of a planet like that." Raditz said, scratching his head.

"That's natural…" Lancar said, "It's an Underdeveloped Planet. So not many people would know about it."

"…Um… I've heard from Nel about there being many other worlds out there…" Clair said, confused. "but I still can't really understand what happened…"

"From what this boy says, it's simple." Albel answered. "We somehow transported to another planet, far away from our own world."

"So you guys are really serious huh… you guys somehow just traveled… couple hundred light years in an instant?" Raditz asked, "Maybe it had something to do with this Island, then… the legend says that this Island used to be an entrance to Daemoneum… a Demon world, hundreds of years ago. That's why nobody comes to this Island anymore."

"Did you just say Daemoneum?" Farleen asked, with her and everybody else in total surprise. "We just came out of the Daemoneum! We were just there!"

"HUH?" Raditz yelled, stunned by what Farleen had just said. "You guys are seriously joking here, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid not." Lancar said. "Let me explain…"

"… So that's what happened to you guys…" Raditz commented quietly as Lancar had finished telling him the entire story. "I did hear the news about Demons breaking out in the other planets recently and that the Federation was fighting them… but I didn't actually think that the legend was true! There's really a place called the Daemoneum?"

"That's right." Clair said. "And the Demons in there are powerful… more powerful than anything we have imagined."

"If this legend is true… then… the story must be true too!" Raditz said, wagging his tail with excitement. "I never believed it myself… but… if you're telling the truth, the story has to be true, too!"

"The story?" Albel asked. "Care to explain?"

"There is a story that had been passed down from our ancestors from generations way back, about 700 years ago…" Raditz explained. "The story is that our ancestors travelled through time using something called the Time Gate, then entered the Daemoneum to defeat _Asmodeus_, the king of the demons!"

"The Time Gate?" Roger asked in surprise.

"Yeah… you guys ever heard of that?" Raditz asked.

"…We just didn't hear about it… we've been there." Albel confirmed.

"What?" Raditz responded in surprise.

"…That's a long story. But let me get this straight… your ancestors were able to enter the Daemoneum and KILL their King?" Albel asked.

"That's right… that's what the legend says." Raditz confirmed. "And it must be true, if you guys really just came from the Daemoneum… the place really exists!"

"So that means it's possible to enter the Daemoneum from this land too!" Clair said in hope. "Raditz, do you know the detailed story about this legend? Details on how to enter this place?" she asked.

"Well, unfortunately no…" Raditz replied. "But you know what… I think I know exactly where to go for that. Just follow me… I'm gonna help you guys out."

"Really? Where are you going?" Farleen asked.

"We should go to Clatos, my hometown!" Raditz said. "There are memoirs written by our ancestors long time ago in the town library… there's probably more detailed information in there!"

"That's great!" Clair said, now full of hope. "Maybe we can find out how to defeat those demons, too."

"If you're really telling us the truth…" Albel said, "then I guess we'll come with you."

"Trust me! I'm positive!" Raditz assured him, while running towards the shore. "There has to be something in the memoirs! Come on, follow me… This way!"

As the group followed Raditz to the shore, they saw him going into a small boat, getting the boat ready so that they can leave; he waved the party in to hurry up and come in.

"Get in the boat… it might be kinda small for all of us, but I think we're going to be fine…" Raditz said, as he explained where they are going to go. "We'll first take this boat to Sylvalant, then catch the ship that takes us to the Astral continent. From there, we can take another ship that goes straight to Clatos."

"Alright." Albel said. "Then let's get going already."

"By the way… I didn't get your names." Raditz asked.

"My name is Clair… pleased to meet you." Clair said, with a bow.

"I'm Roger!" Roger replied proudly.

"My name is Farleen! Nice to meet you!" Farleen said with a smile.

"…The name's Albel." Albel said.

"Again, good to meet you all! Alright then, let's go!" Raditz yelled in excitement as the boat docked off the shores of the Deserted Island, heading towards Sylvalant Port.

* * *

"So, Raditz, can I ask you something?" Lancar asked as the group stepped out of the boat and made their way into Sylvalant City. "How come we have to go to this port… then take another _ship_? Roak is part of the Federation… I thought it was supposed to be… you know, more developed? You guys don't have any transporters or planes here?" 

"Well, you see…" Raditz started explaining. "About 300 years ago, when our Planet joined the Old Pangalactic Federation, we decided to accept new technologies… but only the ones that we had to. We knew about the types of pollutions that the new technologies brought to planets like Earth and Resonia… how they eventually destroyed all of their natural environment and stuff. Our government didn't want that, so basically we only adopted technologies that we saw as essentials. Things like Transporters, Cars, or Planes were seen as novelties that weren't really necessary."

"I see what you mean." Lancar said. "That's why you guys still have a beautiful natural environment here… so what was deemed as essentials, anyway?"

"Defense technologies and interspace transportation, for the most part." Raditz replied. "Especially after our war against Resonia, we saw the need to protect ourselves from other planets… that's why we joined the Federation initially. But too bad these so-called defense systems and weapons couldn't do squat against those Executioners two years ago…"

"Heh… the fool's right about that. All these advanced crap just don't cut it." Albel agreed.

"That's right! Those fancy weapons didn't defeat them, we did!" Roger claimed with pride.

"You… what?" Raditz asked Roger, confused.

"Um… nothing… heh." Roger took his words back, as he realized that the truth was better left not said at the moment.

"Anyways, that is why I'm still honing my skill in traditional Edarl sword style!" Raditz said proudly, "They say that they don't really need any combat personnels anymore, but I still think that it is important to learn. Not many people master sword arts nowadays… that's why I challenged Albel back there, because its so hard to find another person who I can spar with!"

"You're right." Lancar said. "I'm a Combat Personnel myself, so I can understand that. We can be even more important in some situations than heavy artillery sometimes."

"It's so true!" Raditz agreed. "Even some of the greatest Federation heroes have background in our Edarl style… like the great Admiral Claude C. Kenni, who people say saved this galaxy from destruction many times!"

"Ah, that's right… I've heard of the legend many times in history textbooks!" Lancar said.

"My ambition is to become a great hero just like him." Raditz continued, "And also following in footsteps of one of my great ancestors… like I told you before, the legend says that he was able to defeat the Demon King Asmodeus and Cure the virus that was infecting our planet."

"Hmph. Ambition is nothing without action, fool" Albel commented. "If you wanted to become this so-called hero, why not do something, like joining their army?"

"I did… I joined Clatos Volunteer Corps. We fought against those executioners two years ago." Raditz explained. "But we just used advanced weapons and artillery back then… they weren't looking for combat personnels. So I quit..."

"Heh. How pathetic." Albel sneered.

"Still, you shouldn't have given up, Raditz." Clair told him. "If you really have what it takes… you have to keep going at it, even when you're unaccepted by others… and eventually your efforts will pay off. That's how I was able to follow in my father's footsteps."

"She's right, you know." Lancar agreed.

"I guess…" Raditz said, scratching his head. "Oh yeah… Albel was it? I was going to ask you… so how do you know the Edarl sty…" as Raditz was asking him the question, he was interrupted by the news showing from the TV screen from the main square of the city.

_…Once again, the demons have already infested in many other planets around the universe, such as Earth, Expel, Hyda, Resonia and Klaus._ The newscaster said. _There have been no official sightings of any demons here in Roak at the moment, but the Planetary Defense Ministry have ordered all the nations in our world to be under cautious watch. The ministry has also agreed to send military assistance to other planets such as Expel, where the situation is said to be very grave at the moment…_

"Shit…" Lancar cursed. "They're still increasing. We better get to the Daemoneum as fast as possible… before they show up here, too."

"You're right… let's hurry up!" Raditz agreed. "Let's go back to the Port now. I think our ship going to Tropp is about to leave pretty soon."

* * *

**Chapter 17: The fight at sea**

"WOW!" Farleen said, astonished. "This is the biggest ship that I've ever seen in my life! They don't have ships like this in Aquaria… It's so cool!"

"You're right Farleen… wow… this is truly everything beyond my imagination." Clair agreed, looking around the interior and the exteriors of the ship.

"Really? It's just an ordinary ship…" Raditz asked as the group got on board. "Oh yeah, Lancar, don't you guys have to abide by the UP3 or something like that? Cuz they really ARE from an Underdeveloped Planet from what it looks like… are you guys sure you're not breaking the law?"

"Well…" Lancar explained. "Let's just say that due to certain circumstances, an exception has been made."

"Ooookay… if you say so…" Raditz said, confused.

"Going off!" The Sailor yelled, as the Ship departed Sylvalant for Tropp.

* * *

Albel was looking out onto the cool, blue ocean with the warm sunlight shining onto his face, his elbows leaning against the rails on the edge of the ship. Realizing that this was his first alone time in a while, he started to go into deep thought. 

'_Damn… I can't believe I was beaten by that Demon back there… how could I allow something like that to happen… Was he strong, or was I weak… And that place… Daemoneum… what was it about that place… I was definitely… not myself. And how did we end up in this new world? How does that maggot know the same techniques as I do… bah!… there are… just too many questions! Why is all this happening, anyway_?'

"Albel?" Clair asked as she stepped up besides him. "How's everything?"

"… I'm good as I can be after losing a battle. Disgusted of course. What brings you here…" Albel asked.

"I was just thinking that this is the first time in a while we've had the chance to relax…" Clair said, looking out to the sea. "May I join you, if you don't mind?"

"Whatever suits you." Albel said, not particularly interested.

"You know…" Clair began talking in sunlight. "When things are so calm and peaceful like this, it makes you think sometimes… why all these things are happening to us, and why everything has to be so confusing…"

"…There are no easy answers in this world." Albel said. "It's up to those who really want to find out the truth, to find them"

"You're right… but still…" Clair continued as her hair flowed beautifully through with the sea breeze. "In times like this, you really have to wonder why people have to go through so much tribulations… why everything is more complicated for everybody than it needs to be. I think sometimes we worry too much about our added needs and wants, and forget about the things that we appreciate the most…"

"People are greedy and selfish creatures, I told you before." Albel said. "No matter how many things they have, people will always want more. Essentials are not enough. It's in human nature, and it's why people ultimately kill each other."

"I agree," Clair said. "I think it's because people these days only think about what they want _more_ of, instead of what they simply… _want_."

"That's the reality." Albel said. "We don't live in an Utopian world. As long as there is human beings living in this universe, this reality won't change."

"… So what's is it that you _want _in life, Albel? Is there something that you really want for yourself in this world?" Clair asked.

"I want revenge." Albel replied. "I want to kill all those demon bastards."

"I didn't mean that…" Clair said, shaking her head. "I meant something that you want for yourself… not for anybody else, not for the fulfillment of your own ego… but just purely for your own soul..."

"Now what you're saying is just getting more vague and stupid…" Albel sneered.

"Well then, I can tell you what I mean by my own example then…" Clair said.

"Hmph. What's this 'example' of yours, then?" Albel asked.

"What I simply want… is this _moment_." Clair explained. "Me just being out here, breathing cool fresh air, enjoying being under a warm sun, surrounded by sea… with nothing but peace and quiet… this simple moment is what I want, and nothing else. Just like when I was a little child, playing with Nel and my other friends… I just want to enjoy the moment without a care in this world."

"Hmph. Like a child, you say." Albel commented.

"Yes… so… how was your childhood like, Albel?" Clair asked.

"… All I remember is Kirlsa." Albel replied. "All the way back to the time when I was about 6 years old. I remember running around that old man Woltar's mansion, and beating up some maggots on the street. I was _different_ from who they were… and they couldn't accept it."

"Haha… so you were the same person as you are now…" Clair commented with a little smile and a laugh. "But maybe you're the one who didn't accept them, instead of other way around. Maybe it is friends that you want."

"Beh… don't be ridiculous." Albel said, annoyed. "I don't need these so called 'friends'. Never have and never will."

"Is that so?" Clair asked. "Lancar… Farleen… Roger… Raditz… and myself… right now to you we may only be your comrades, but I think we all know deep inside that it is more than that. Perhaps it was destiny… but I feel that we can all confide in each other more than an ordinary comrades can."

"Hmph, believe whatever you want. It doesn't apply to me." Albel said, turning his head away.

"Haha…" Clair smiled, as she continued. "So anyways… you said you remember your childhood, back to when you were 6 years old? What about before? You must have had some fond memories of your mother and father…"

"I don't remember anything before that age." Albel said. "I've never even seen this mother of mine… she supposedly died when I was younger."

"I'm sorry…" Clair Apologized. "but you don't even remember anything about your mother? Or before when you were 6?"

"Do you remember how you were born?" Albel asked. "That's how it was to me. Everything before that time is a complete blank. Of course, it's none of my concern anyway."

"I see…" Clair said, as she turned around.

Suddenly, with a loud impact, the ship started rocking violently. "M….monsters? No… they're…DEMONS?" the security guard yelled, as bunch of water demons emerged from the sea right onto the surface of the ship.

"Ack… Demons?" Raditz yelled as he ran down to the main deck with Lancar, Farleen and Roger to take care of the enemies.

"So the demons are finally here too, huh?" Raditz asked rhetorically as he unsheathed his Long Sword. "Alright then… I'll send them back to where they came from!" Raditz rushed over to several of the demons, slashing and hacking at the water demons. His attacks went through their bodies like knife through water… literally; as it didn't do any damage with the water demon just simply gaining back its original form.

"What the… they're like _actual_ water?" Raditz commented in disbelief.

"Advanced fire-based runology spells would be the best attack against them…" Farleen commented, "But I can't use them without harming or destroying the ship… let me try something weaker!" she said as she charged up for a short spell.

"FIREBOLT!" Farleen yelled, as the ball of fire homed in towards the water demons. With the blast, it evaporated the enemies a bit, but nowhere close to evaporating them completely. "It… won't work! It's too weak!"

"I'm literally punching through water!" Lancar yelled out, his punches going through the water demons without any hint of damage. "I can't damage it!"

As each of the party members were only succeeding in containing the water demons by using weak fire-based spells, all of a sudden the water demons combined into a one huge water demon. It raised its pitchfork high up, charging up an attack and saying "Begone, humans! Let I, Poseidon, wipe you out clean off this world!"

"NOAH!" Poseidon yelled as a large tsunami of water swept over the deck of the ship, knocking everybody off their feet and making them gasp for breath.

"ACK! cough damn… cough …" Albel cursed as he and others were struggling in recovering from the powerful water blast.

"cough I have an idea…" Farleen yelled as she charged up for a runology spell. "This won't destroy the ship… TAKE THIS! DEEP FREEZE!"

The cold, arctic air immediately froze Poseidon into a thick block of ice, unable to move. Noticing this chance, Raditz came charging in, ready to deal the decisive blow. "Kyaaa! Die, demon!"

"TWIN SLASH!" Raditz yelled as he jumped up, swinging up then down at the Frozen Poseidon with his sword. Upon the heavy impact, Poseidon shattered into thousand pieces on the surface of the deck.

"I did it!" Raditz said proudly. "That should take care of that bastar…" He stopped as he watched the shattered pieces of ice gradually melting under the hot sunlight. After few moments, each drop of the melted water came together into one glob, forming Poseidon again just as he was before.

"It… It just melted and formed back together!" Farleen cried out in fear.

"…I think I have another idea." Clair said. "We need to dry it out, evaporate it."

"We already know that!" Roger said, deflecting a water jet attack with his fiery axe. "But our fire attacks are too weak, and stronger fire attacks will burn the ship down!"

"There's another method to do so besides fire…" Clair claimed as she dashed towards Poseidon, her runes reacting with energy being charged "I'm going to try it."

As everybody watched, Clair suddenly stopped right in front of the monster, and released the energy charged from her runes. "WHIRLWIND!" Clair yelled as her body became surrounded with a massive, scorching tornado. The massive tornado of hot air from the Whirlwind started drying away Poseidon, its size becoming smaller and smaller.

"I… can't keep this up for much longer…" Clair said as she began to tire out. "Albel… Raditz… use… that wind attack…"

"Alright! Hey, you ready there?" Raditz asked as he held his sword back in position.

"Just worry about your own move… and put all you got into it!" Albel shouted at Raditz, and he swung his sword back.

"AIR SLASH!" Both warriors yelled simultaneously as the two devastating wind blasts came together into one large gust, then continuing towards the monster. With the unbelievable gust of wind from the attack, Poseidon dried off completely into thin air.

"We got it!" Raditz yelled in triumph. "That was some smart thinking… it was amazing, Clair!"

"Thank…. You…" Clair responded with a smile, completely tired out from her attack. Farleen and Roger eventually had to help her up.

"Alright… let's tell all the sailors that it's safe to be on our way again." Raditz said, as he turned to Albel. "…Oh by the way… Albel, did you REALLY learn how fight from your father?"

"…You think I was lying?" Albel replied, annoyed. "I have no reason to lie to you... I was taught how to fight by my old man, that's all."

"Hmm…" Raditz pondered. "I'm just wondering if you really meant that, because seriously, only top ranking Federation officials get to train in Edarl style technique! And you're from a planet that isn't even part of the Federation… so it's just really baffling to me… especially since you seem know all of the advanced techniques…"

"If that's the case, how did YOU learn the style, fool?" Albel asked. "You told me you're a dropout… that means you're no high rank official."

"Well, Edarl Style Sword Art has been passed down my family for generations..." Raditz replied. "You can say it's inherited, even."

"…It has to be a coincidence." Lancar concluded. "You guys are from two different planets, so that's the only logical explanation… and it's possible for lots of various styles to be little similar! Besides, it doesn't really matter in the end, right? What matters is that you both have enough skills to go out there and beat the crap out of those demons!"

"Hehe… you're right Lancar… you're right. Sorry for asking." Raditz agreed, as the ship closed in toward the dock at the Port of Tropp.


	6. Part 6: Chapters 18, 19, 20, 21

**Chapter 18: The merchant girl**

"Yes! We're finally here!" Raditz yelled out stretching as the group finally arrived at the Port at Tropp. "I was getting so sick of that ship… if I was there any longer I would have gone seasick!"

"What a wimp." Albel sneered as the group walked out of the ship, making their way into the town. "Stop complaining and get moving. Anyhow, how much further do we have to go?"

"Well, We're at Tropp now," Raditz replied. "And we have to get to the Port at the Town of Otanim, which is on the other side of the Astral continent… from there we have to take ANOTHER ship that takes us to our Destination, Clatos, so… yeah, we got quite a way to go still… heh."

"How convenient." Albel answered sarcastically.

"Seriously… you people on Roak should have had at least couple transporters or cars or something like that…" Lancar whined. "Few of them wouldn't have hurt."

"Haha… let's just get moving as fast as we can, then." Clair told the rest of the group with a smile. "We've run out of some supplies for now… let's find a shop in the town so we can restock on our items before we can get going again."

"But Lady Clair… we don't have any money from this planet!" Farleen said.

"Dang…" Roger said in disappointment. "So what should we do then, guys? Should we steal them? You know, I can be a pretty good thief…" Roger told the group, as he took out his bandit's gloves.

"Nonono… Roger… we don't need to steal anything…" Raditz said with a sweatdrop. "Don't worry about it… I got plenty of money!… since my family is pretty rich. Anyways, it's all on me!"

"Hmph. Spoiled kid. It's no wonder that you're without a job, then." Albel said.

"Heh…" Raditz chuckled, little embarrassed. "Anyways, let's go find some shops."

The group headed towards the center of the Town of Tropp. Being a port town connecting the Astral Continent with the Van Continent, it was bustling with commerce and trade. After going through few shops to restock on their weapons and food, they looked for a place where they can buy armour as well as some items.

"Come shop here, everybody! Come here for some of the best outfits and armour you can find here on Roak!" A cute, cheery sky-blue haired girl in white T-shirt and bellbottom pants yelled out to many consumers walking down the road. "We got many new armours and items from many places around the galaxy! We carry the newest imported products from Planets Resonia, Expel, and others!"

"What the…" Farleen asked, staring at the pair of white wings attached to the merchant girl's back. "She has… wings?"

"She's a Featherfolk." Raditz explained. "There are lots of Featherfolks here on Roak."

"Really? Only Featherfolk I knew from Surferio was big sister Stanice…" Roger said.

"And also check out our new exotic armory from a planet that you've never even heard of!" The Featherfolk merchant girl continued. "We have rare, hard to find items from a far away Planet named Elicoor! Come check them out!"

"WHAT?" Lancar yelled in surprise. "Did I just hear what I think she said?"

"Hey, isn't that the planet that you guys said you come from?" Raditz asked.

"Isn't that what they call our world?" Clair asked. "But if that's true, how can they have things from our Planet?"

"There is something fishy going on here! They must be illegal traders!" Lancar said, walking towards the Featherfolk girl who was also working with another merchant.

"Hey everybody!" The Featherfolk girl greeted the group as they walked towards her. "What can I help you with? Feel free to look around! We have all the best stuff, guaranteed!"

"That's right!" The merchant man besides the girl, dressed in green and wearing a green hat, said. "You won't find items like these anywhere else!"

"Wait a minute…" Roger said looking at the man, pondering for a bit. "I've… I've seen you from somewhere before!" He yelled as he pointed towards the Merchant man.

"Really? Who might you be… Hey, you're!…" The man yelled back, also surprised.

"Aren't… aren't you that guy who got lost and sold stuff to us two years ago? With another girl?" Roger asked.

"Two years ago?… Oh… yes… that's right… I remember you!" The man recalled. "I remember you helped us find the way through to that Town called Kirlsa! Nice to see you again! Let me introduce myself once more, my name is Ruddle Crispin."

"…So he really WAS on Elicoor?" Lancar asked.

"Yeah!" Roger replied. "Me, Fayt, Cliff and Miss Nel all helped them with directions and stuff!"

"Ruddle, you got lost even back THEN, too?" The Featherfolk girl asked jokingly.

"Haha… it's embarrassing, isn't it, Miss Reen?" Ruddle replied, scratching his head in embarrassment.

"Hey… but she's not the girl you were traveling with back then!" Roger said. "So what happened to her? I remember she had a pretty nasty attitude!"

"Miss Rumina you mean? Oh… unfortunately, her parents happen to find out that we were doing business on an underdeveloped planet… so she had to go back home before she got caught by the Federation Authorities…" Ruddle answered.

"A little girl huh… oh yeah… haha, that's right." Lancar said. "It must be the daughter of the Casino King Goldburn… she's notorious within the Federation."

"That's right…" Ruddle said. "Since Miss Rumina had to return home, I was forced to operate our business alone. I came to Roak about two months ago, and met with Miss Reen at Portmis."

"AFTER I found out that he was lost, heehee." Reen said, giggling. "I had to help him with directions, then I found out that he was a Merchant, just like me. Soooo… after that, we decided to become business partners!"

"Beh… are you all finished with your useless conversation?" Albel butted in. "We're not here to chat about old times, you know. Let's just buy the stuff and get out of here!"

"That's rite! Sorry mister, sorry!" Reen apologized, smiling and walking to front of where Albel was standing, then examining him with great interest. "Just look around for anything you need! And since you're so cute, I'll give YOU a special discount! Heehee…"

"Um… we're going to need some Blueberries and Regeneration symbols… oh yeah, and we'll take those armours and shields that you've got over there, too!" Raditz said.

"Sure thing! Okay… that'll be… 5300 fol with the special discount!" Reen said after punching in some numbers in her pocket calculator, then smiling and looking to Albel.

"Oh… I'm paying by the way…" Raditz said.

"YOU'RE buying these?" Reen asked. "Oookay then… alright… so without discount, that'll be 14000 fol please!"

"WHAT?" Raditz yelled in surprise, with a sweatdrop from his head. "How come I don't get a discount?"

"Because it's only offered to this cutie right here!" Reen replied, wrapping her arm around Albel's.

"Bah… get off me…" Albel said as he tried to shake Reen off. "And I'll take whatever he's taking."

"That'll be 5300 fol, please!" Reen said with a smile.

"He has the money." Albel said, pointing to Raditz. "get it from him."

"Heh… but…" Raditz handed her the money, stunned that how he was completely neglected by Reen in favour of Albel just before.

"So… how did you guys end up here? Taking a vacation?" Ruddle asked. "I'm surprised you guys came here from Elicoor and all… since they're an underdeveloped planet."

"Now that would be one LOOONG story…" Farleen said.

"Well, let's just say that we ended up here by accident." Clair said. "We now have to go to this place called Clatos… to read the ancient memoirs from 400 years ago."

"Did you say… ancient?" Reen asked Albel. "ancient memoirs? That sound sooo rare… and it's from _400 years ago_? Oh my gosh! Can we trade?"

"… It's his, not mine." Albel said, pointing at Raditz.

"Really?" Reen said, finally turning to Raditz, grabbing his hand. "Can I have it? Please please? I can trade you something for it!"

"Um… eh… but… it's not really for sale…" Raditz answered, blushing.

"Aw… common… please please? Pretty please?" Reen begged him.

"Um…" Raditz mumbled, still blushing.

"Enough of this. We're wasting our time." Albel said. "We leave, now."

"He's right…" Clair said. "We don't have much time to lose. We should get going. Ruddle, Reen, thank you for the discount." Clair said, turning to Ruddle and Reen to bow.

"You're going to Clatos, did you say…" Reen said, in deep thought. "Okay… Ruddle, I've decided… I'm going with them! Everybody, I'm gonna come with you"

"HUH?" Everybody blurted in surprise.

"But… Miss Reen!" Ruddle said, very surprised with what she had just said. "Why are you going with them? And what about our business?"

_"_They said they have something valuable and RARE… I just HAVE to see what this is for myself!_"_ Reen said quietly to Ruddle's ear. "Think about how much money we can make for selling something that rare… omigosh… it can sell for millions! I'm going to try to convince them to give it to me! Besides, I wanna see if that hot guy there will ask me out…"

"Are you serious, Miss Reen?" Ruddle asked, with a sweatdrop.

"I'm serious! Don't worry… I'll haggle with them until I get it! And you can stay here in Tropp and take care of our business alone until I get back, _so that you won't get lost again_… It'll be okay; I won't be away for too long… I promise I'll be back soon!"

"Well… if that's so… then good luck, Miss Reen." Ruddle said. "See you soon."

"Heehee, don't go off anywhere while I'm gone!" Reen told Ruddle, giving him a hug, then turning towards the group.

"Okay everybody! I'm coming with you guys!" Reen said with a smile. "I have to see what this ancient memoir is! I'm coming whether you like it or not, heehee."

"Ah… but Reen…" Clair said, hesitating to accept her into the group.

"She's none of our concern." Albel said, walking away. "We act on our own. Let her do whatever she wants."

"Uh… I suppose you can travel with us for a while then…" Raditz said to Reen. "Welcome to the group!"

"So what's your name?" Reen ran off to ask Albel, ignoring everything Raditz had just said.

"Beh…" Albel didn't say anything, annoyed.

"His name is Albel." Farleen said. "I'm Farleen! The short boy is Roger, the big man is Lancar, and that's Lady Clair! Nice to meet you!"

"My name is Reen Silvermoon!" Reen said. "Nice to meet you all too! Alright then, everybody, let's get going!" she said, gliding in the air to chase after Albel.

"And my name is… Raditz…" Raditz mumbled, with everybody already walking towards the town exit.

* * *

**Chapter 19: Path to Tartaroy**

"So where are we going now?" Lancar asked, as the group was walking through a path in the middle of big, open forested grounds. "Will this lead us to Otanim or whatever the place is called?"

"Actually, it's still quite a long way." Raditz said. "We're probably going to have to stop by Tartaroy… which is another city we'll meet on the way. After that, we have to walk a bit more to reach Otanim."

"That's a long walk…" Lancar commented. "Well, at least it won't be boring with that girl traveling with us now."

"Yeah…" Raditz agreed, looking to where Reen was with his tail wagging. "Hey… she's pretty cute, huh?"

"Haha… yup, she seems like a cute girl. Pretty cheerful too." Lancar agreed. "Too bad that she's all over Albel and not you, huh?"

"Err…" Raditz mumbled in embarrassment.

"Hey Farleen!" Reen asked her a question. "Don't you think that Albel is really really Hot?"

"Ew! I can never ever like that man!" Farleen said. "thinking about all the rotten things he's said… the things he's done… grrrr…"

"I'm not sure about whatever he's done…" Reen said, admiring Albel with her sparkly blue eyes. "but I don't really care… look at him… look at those sharp wolf-like eyes that could kill… his lean, washboard abs… his cool hair… his great fashion sense… wow"

"Pshh… whatever you say." Farleen retorted. "Oh yeah, Reen, by the way, what are those ball things that's roaming around you?" Farleen asked, pointing to number of tennisball-sized orbs that were floating around Reen.

"Oh, these?" Reen said. "These are orbs. My mother taught me the secret art of the orb techniques that's been passed down from generations ago. They can help me with many things as I travel from place to place… I can even use it for self-defense when I have to, too."

"You mean you can fight with those?" Roger asked. "HAHA! That's so funny!"

"Hmmm! You just haven't seen it, Roger!" Reen replied, little offended. "I can actually kick some butt too, you know. You'd be pretty surprised!"

Meanwhile, Albel was walking along the path ahead of rest of the pack, Clair being the closest one behind. As Albel was walking, he looked out to examine the environment. The trees, the ground, the air, the smell… deep inside, there was something about these grounds that Albel was familiar with. Little tidbits of memories flashed in his mind, as his mind glitched out a little again.

"Bah…" Albel grunted in pain, as he was getting a minor but sharp headache.

"Albel?" Clair asked in concern, walking towards Albel's side. "What's wrong Albel, is everything all right?"

"Ack… I'm fine… you don't have to worry." Albel said, waving Clair off.

"…" Clair looked worried. "It seems like you've been getting headaches lately… are you sure you don't need to go see a doctor?" she asked.

"There is no time for that. There's nothing wrong with me. I don't need your concern." Albel said.

As Albel looked forward again, he saw that something was coming towards them from the distance. Six Dark bird-like creatures were heading their way, not looking particularly friendly.

"Looks like some birds want to be buried down in the ground." Albel said as everybody went into their battle stance. "I'll make sure they bite the dust, as they wish."

"Alright guys," Clair said, jumping into the air. "Let's take them out!"

Clair jumped into the air at the Dark bird, slashing twice at it with her Twin daggers. However, her slashes were easily evaded by the birds who quickly maneuvered backwards.

"They're… pretty fast…" Clair said.

"FIREBOLT!" Farleen yelled as the ball of fire homed in towards the dark bird. However, the bird flew further back, pulled back on its wings, and flapped them towards the firebolt creating a great gust of wind. The wind blast simply blew off the firebolt and hit the ground in front of where all the heroes were standing, blowing them off their feet and onto the ground.

"Ughh… take this…" Raditz grunted, unsheathing his sword, then jumping HIGH in the air. "HEAD SPLITTER!" He yelled as he held the sword back over his head upside down. He thrusted the tip of the sword downwards, piercing through the body of one of the birds and impaling it.

"Here I go!" Lancar yelled as he jumped high in the air. He jumped high in the sky above where the bird was flying, and came down feet first on with his body covered in Qigong aura. "AERIAL ASSULT!" He yelled as his body simply punctured right through the body of the bird, ripping it into pieces.

"Hah!" Roger yelled as he tossed one of his axes right where the bird was flying at. The axe flew towards the bird at a rapid speed, but just missed it as it quickly flew sideways to avoid it. However, as the bird flew aside, it was met with another sniping axe blow that which chopped through it like a piece of wood. "Tricked ya!" Roger taunted.

As everybody was battling the birds, the other three birds flew sharply towards where Reen was standing, who was just standing back there looking helpless. "…Reen!" Raditz yelled in concern as he was too out of range to help.

"Err… evil birds… take this!" Reen yelled. "RAVEN ORB!" the three orbs that were floating around Reen all reacted with energy as they flew up and towards the birds at a blazing speed. The orbs knocked each of the three birds squarely in the face, knocking them back.

"Time to get serious!" Reen said, as she flied up and gathered up her orbs again. She added two more orbs to the mix of three that was already out there, and arranged them into a cross-shaped formation in the air. "NORTHERN CROSS!" she yelled as the 5 orbs reacted with Ice energy then flew towards the 3 birds. The jet of ice blasts shot towards the birds, freezing them solid.

"KIYAAA!" Albel yelled as he flew up to deal the finishing blows. With three precise and smooth slashes from his katana, he cut through all of the frozen birds, shattering them in pieces.

"WOW! That was cool!" Reen shouted in admiration. "He's strong too!"

"I also killed one…" Raditz mumbled, feeling neglected again.

"Wow… you sure can fight with those!" Farleen complemented Reen.

"We better not drop our guards." Lancar said as the party gathered themselves and started walking again. "There's quite a few monsters here in this planet, too. And we never know when the demons will show up again. Let's be careful."

* * *

**Chapter 20: A familiar face**

"PHEW!" Raditz yelled, as the party stepped towards the entrance to the Town of Tartaroy. "That was one hell of a walk… let's rest here for couple hours, and get going again… we should be able to get to Otanim by nightfall!"

"Tartaroy… wow! I haven't been here in two months!" Reen said, running in full of excitement. "I wonder if the tournament is still going on at the Arena?"

"The tournament? Arena?" Clair asked.

"Yeah, this city has the biggest Arena… bigger then any other Arenas on this planet!" Raditz said. "Once a year… there's an Arms tournament that takes place here in the Arena, where the fighters from all over the world gather to test their skills. My great ancestors won this tournament many times. I'm going to enter it too, next year."

"You mean you haven't entered before?" Roger asked. "How come? This sounds like exactly your kind of thing! Mine too… but heh… how come you never entered?"

"Because right now I'm still too young to enter…" Raditz said. "You have to be at least 18 years old to enter it."

"You're not 18 yet?" Reen asked. "Wow, you're younger than me! But you don't look like it…"

"What?… wow… how old are you?" Raditz asked.

"I'm 19." Reen said, rushing over to Albel. "How old are you, Albel?"

"…" Albel didn't answer.

"The database says he's 26…" Lancar said, reading out his profile from his quad scanner.

"Wow… he's so mature!" Reen said in admiration. "Handsome good looks AND a mature personality… he's like a prince!"

"…" Clair just looked at Reen flirting with Albel, not doing or saying anything but little flustered inside, for some reason.

"Let's go into the arena!" Farleen said. "I want to check it out!"

The group walked towards the Large Arena that was located on the North side of the town. They entered through the door, into the hallway with a ticket booth standing in the middle of it.

"Hey everybody! You guys here for the show?" The worker in the ticket booth asked. "Show will be starting in about 2 hours! This performance is not to be missed… you guys should purchase the ticket now before it's sold out!"

"Show?" Farleen asked. "What show? Isn't there supposed to be an arms tournament?"

"Arms tournament ended a week ago." The worker replied. "But now there is better, more entertaining show in town! A circus!"

"A circus? Pshhh…" Roger sneered, disappointed that the arms tournament is over. "Who wants to see a stupid circus, anyway?"

"HEY! Watch your mouth!" A girl yelled from a distance. "That right! I heard all that! How dare you disrespect our show! Do you have any idea how much effort and time we put into… HUH?"

"Eh… that voice…" Roger mumbles, as he slowly turned around to face the girl.

"That's…" Farleen and Clair said simultaneously as they both looked at the girl.

"Hey, isn't that…" Lancar asked.

"Ugh… it can't be that annoying brat again…" Albel sighed.

"PEPPITA!" Roger yelled as Peppita walked towards the group in disbelief. She had the same bleach white hair and dark skin, but she was now noticeably taller, as tall as Clair and Farleen. Her hair was now long and straight, and her body had gotten much more mature.

"Is that… Roger? Albel? Farleen? Miss Clair? And Mr. Lancar?" Peppita said as she met up with the group with disbelief in her face. "Wow… I would have never thought that I'd run into you guys here!"

"Same here, Peppita." Lancar said. "And my…you've grown a lot! Could hardly recognize you."

"Heehee, we Verbeysians grow faster than most other races." Peppita answered. "It's so good to see you all again! You all haven't changed one bit… well, except for Roger…"

"Heh…" Roger twirled his thumb in embarrassment.

"So are you guys here to see my show?" Peppita asked.

"Your show?" Clair asked. "What might that be?"

"I don't think I told you this when I met you, Miss Clair!" Peppita said. "But I'm part of a Circus troupe!" She said pointing at the banner hanging high up on the wall that read 'TODAY'S PERFORMANCE: THE ROSSETTI TROUPE'

"Yeah, I remember you telling me the stories about your Troupe on the Diplo, hahaha." Lancar said. "It's good to see that your group has finally taken off!"

"Yeah, it's about dang time! Heehee… you can say that we're pretty famous now… we were just invited to Roak for a tour! But wait a minute… where's Fayt? Sophia? Mr. Cliff… Miss Nel and Maria… and the rest?" Peppita asked.

"…" Everybody except for Reen went silent, with Peppita also having no idea about what was going on.

"Yeah, I'd like to know too…" Reen asked. "Why do you guys need go read those ancient memoirs, anyway?"

"Alright… I'll tell you both the whole story…" Clair said, as the group entered the dressing room to all sit down for a while. Clair then began explaining the whole story.

"I… I can't believe it…" Peppita said quietly, stunned. "Fayt and Miss Nel… are captured? And Miss Maria is missing? And you guys were fighting Demons? Wow…"

"I didn't know they had your friends captive, too." Raditz said. "Now I see why you guys are so determined about this…"

"Wow… I can't believe that was what you guys were really doing." Reen said, also surprised. "I'm surprised… but I believe every word you said."

"Really?" Farleen asked.

"Yeah…" Reen said. "It's said that us Featherfolks were almost wiped off from this Planet about 700 years ago… by an evil spirit that was created by the Demons. Only few of us survived, but one of my ancestors is said to have helped to drive the demons off from our world. I thought it was only a made-up story, but I guess it's not."

"I've heard about that story too…" Raditz said looking at Reen. "So this in a way concerns all of us."

"Especially me!" Peppita said, getting up from her seat. "I'm coming with you guys!"

"Peppita, no!" Clair responded adamantly. "You don't need to be involved in this… we can take care of it… you shouldn't leave behind your parents and your other troupe members! We can't ask you to do that…"

"No, it's okay Miss Clair! Allow me to come with you!" Peppita begged. "Fayt, Miss Nel… and the rest… I learned so much from them two years ago, and I have so many fond memories, too… I can't just sit down still knowing that they're captured and in danger! They're really important to me… so I have to go help save them!"

"But… Peppita, what about your parents?" Farleen asked.

"She has our full permission." Dulcinea replied, as her and Piccolotto entered through the door, catching everybody in surprise. "We heard everything… sorry about that. But if this is something that concerns us, you guys need not to worry. We will allow Peppita to go."

"She's right." Piccolotto said. "What Peppita learned from the adventures two years ago was something of real value… and one of those things was helping out each other and having faith and trust in your comrades. Peppita knows what she wants to do, and we give her our permission. As a matter of fact, we order her to go with you all."

"Mother, Father!" Peppita said. "Thank you so much… the troupe will be okay, right?"

"I guess Gonnella and Ursus will just have to cover for your time while you're gone. But don't worry about it; it shouldn't be a big deal. The crowd loves them." Dulcinea said.

"Thank you mother… father…" Peppita said as she hugged her adopted mother and father. She then turned to the group to ask again. "So I hope it's okay with you guys… that I'm coming…"

"If that's the case, then we welcome you to the group, Peppita." Clair said with a smile, and looked back to the group who also accepted her the same way. "…I think we're all in agreement."

"Yay!" Peppita yelled in joy. "Then let's get going! It's time to rescue our friends and kick some demon butt!"

* * *

**Chapter 21: Chaos in the Desert**

The path to Otanim from Tartaroy was a pretty straight forward one, though long. There were few enemies far and between, but all small groups of enemies had no chance against the power of the eight heroes.

"This sure is taking heck of a long time…" Roger complained. "And this land is nothing but sand… is this a desert or something?"

"It's been pretty long, yeah." Raditz replied. "But we're almost there, don't worry."

As Roger walked ahead, there was something down below the sandy grounds that was waiting for him. A hand made purely of sand popped out from the ground, then the whole body shot out to attack Roger from behind.

"Roger!" Raditz yelled as his instincts caught the monsters first before anyone else.

"Huh.. Ah…AHHHH!" Roger yelled, scared and frozen solid, about to be hit with the Sandman's attack.

"MAGIC HOOK!" Peppita yelled as she pulled Roger out from harm's way by only fraction of a second. Roger fell down on the ground, sweating in fear.

"Roger!" Peppita called his name, rushing to his side to see if he was alright. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"

"I'm… I'm okay…" Roger answered, staring and Peppita's beautiful face and blushing a little.

The sandman shot out a jet of sand onto everybody, backing them all off. Albel and the rest got into their battle stance, ready to take on this sand monster.

"Take this, scum!" Albel yelled as he slashed at the Sandman rentlessly. Every one of his slashes went through the sand as how it should, but not damaging it as the Sandman regenerated itself very quickly.

"Damn, another one of THESE monsters?" Albel cursed.

"A sand monster…" Farleen said. "Water based spells would be the best… everybody, let's go for it!" Farleen began her spellcasting, then casted it towards the Sandman in few seconds. "ICE NEEDLES!"

"ICE DAGGERS!" Clair yelled and tossed her daggers at the same time Peppita did a similar move. "FROZEN DAGGERS!"

All the ice moves pierced through Sandman at the same time, damaging it but not preventing it from regenerating itself.

"Drats, ice spells won't do it…" Farleen said, backing off. "It's too solid… we need something with PURE liquid-form water… but I don't know any strong pure water-based spell! Acid Rain or Thunderstorm wouldn't be strong enough…"

"You can count on me for that." Clair said, as she began chanting one of her spells.

"Me too!" Reen yelled as she gathered up her orbs and began charging it in water energy.

"SEA GATE!" Clair yelled as a Tsunami of water swept over the Sandman. At the same time, Reen yelled "AQUA ORB!" as her orb's energy resonated with each other to turn into water, blasting at the Sandman.

"GWOOOO!" The Sandman cried as the water attacks blasted its structure into Billions of little sand particles.

"We got it!" Reen said in triumph.

However, the Sandman was more resilient than anybody expected. The sand particles, hardened from water, gathered one by one. Eventually, a small ball was gathered, and it then sucked in heat energy from the blazing sun shining from above. The heat dried off everything, and the Sandman regenerated into what he was before.

"How can it?…" Clair muttered in disbelief.

Lancar and Raditz dashed towards the monster to attack it again. All their attacks were futile, as they just punched through the sand. One of Lancar's punches went right through inside the sand, and got stuck. "Crap, my hand's stuck!" Lancar yelled. "What is this, like a quick sand?"

"BWAAA!" Sandman yelled as he then punched Lancar and Raditz away. Then, it raised both of his hands, to make another attack. "SAND BLASTER!" it yelled, as sharp jet of sand sprayed towards everybody. Albel, Reen, and Clair created barriers to block them, but it caught Lancar and Raditz who were just recovering, as well as Roger, Peppita and Farleen standing in the distance.

"Ahhhh!…" Roger, Peppita and Farleen screamed as they were put out of commission.

"Shit… Clair, heal them." Albel said, jumping back.

"SANDSTORM!" Sandman yelled as storm of sand swept across the field. Everybody got knocked down, gasping for breath.

"cough… damn…" Albel cursed, and then went into thought. _'That damned sand… it regenerates every time we take it apart… does that mean we have to disintegrate every single part of it?'_

"Ugh… guys… I'm going to try a technique…." Raditz said, getting up, but struggling. "But I need it blasted in pieces first."

"I'll do the honours." Albel said, pointing his palm towards the Sandman. "You just make sure this move of yours work."

"Alright…" Raditz said, as he started to charge himself in mass energy.

"Take this, you worthless bag of sand," Albel taunted as his palm became charged with mass amount of energy. "PALM OF DESTRUCTION!"

Albel's mass ball of energy flew towards the Sandman, and exploded upon impact, blasting it into millions of pieces again. "Alright… here goes nothing!" Raditz then yelled as he jumped high up in the air charged in blue energy. "DRAGON HOWL!" the energy around Raditz formed into a shape of a massive dragon, as he jumped down towards the particles of the Sandman. This overwhelming dragon energy disintegrated each and every single grain of Sand that was part of the monster.

"So long, sandbag." Albel taunted as everybody got up and celebrated the victory.

"That move was amazing, Raditz!" Lancar said. "That's the real power of the Edarl style, huh?"

"Heh… tha…n…k…s" Raditz mumbled weakly as he dropped to his knees, and fell flat onto his face.

"Raditz!" Farleen and Peppita yelled as they both rushed over to his side, along with Clair and Reen.

"He's passed out…" Clair said. "That technique he used must have been too much for him."

"Hmph. Weakling." Albel sneered, but still impressed with the skill Raditz used.

"Can't somebody cast a healing spell?" Reen asked in concern.

"I can't…" Clair said. "Since he's not injured, and merely drained out physically, it won't work."

"Well, let's get to Otanim first then, and rest up for the night." Lancar said, as he picked unconscious Raditz up. "It'll be nighttime soon, anyway."

"Let's get going fast, then!" Peppita said, as everybody walked towards the port town of Otanim.


	7. Part 7: Chapters 22, 23, 24

**Chapter 22: A night out at Otanim**

"Here we are!" Reen said as the party entered through the gates of the town. "We're finally at Otanim!"

"Let's hurry and get a room at the Inn first," Lancar said, holding Raditz. "We'll make sure Raditz gets plenty of rest, and we can leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Yes, let's do that." Clair said, as everybody walked towards the town Inn.

The party arrived at the Inn, and got two separate rooms; one for the 4 guys and another one for the 4 girls. The boys all went to their room, and layed Raditz on the bed so that he can rest. After that, they each wondered what to do next.

"Soooo…" Roger asked. "What should we do now? It's still late afternoon, we got the whole night left."

"Good question… hmm." Lancar replied, turning to Albel. "What are you going to do, Albel?"

"I'll tell you what I'm not doing, I'm not going to stay in this small run-down room." Albel said as he walked out of the room. "I'm going outside. The rest of you do whatever you want, just don't follow me."

"Gee, still the antisocial guy, aren't ya…" Lancar muttered as he turned back to Roger. "So Roger… what are you going to do?"

"Umm… I'm not sure…" Roger said, in deep thought. "Uh… Lancar, I have a question… and it's something really personal… can you keep this a secret?"

"Sure thing, Roger." Lancar replied, wondering what Roger would ask. "You said it's personal eh? What is it?"

"Well…" Roger said quietly. "I think I'm beginning to like Peppita…"

"What's that? Hahahah!" Lancar laughed. "I didn't think this was about something trivial like that, I thought this was about something serious!"

"But it IS serious!" Roger said, little offended that Lancar thought this was a joke. "This is the first time I ever felt this way… she got so much prettier over the last two years, and everytime I talk to her, I get so nervous! And… I don't know what to say!"

"Hehe, I get ya, I get ya." Lancar said, with a good chuckle. "She has become much more mature over the last two years… I knew Verbeysians grow up faster than other races, but still. So what would you like to ask me?"

"Well…" Roger said, with his head down and his thumbs twirling. "What should I do? I like her… and I want to let her know, but I don't even know where to begin! Do you think you can help me, Lancar? Have you been in this situation before?"

"Hahahah! You've come to the right person!" Lancar replied with a laugh. "I'm a married man with a daughter myself. So I'm an expert when it comes to romance and stuff like that. I got couple things that I can teach you about woman, that's for sure!"

"Wow! That's great!" Roger said with excitement. "But… let's not do it here… can we go somewhere else to talk about this?"

"Of course." Lancar said, walking out the door. "Follow me, let's go to a local bar."

* * *

Meanwhile, the four girls were sitting down in their rooms getting little bit of a rest. After sitting around and chatting for a bit, Clair got up to leave. 

"I'm going to go outside for a little while, to get some fresh air." Clair said. "I'll be back by nightfall. You guys should go outside and relax for a bit as well."

"I think I'm going to go to the theatre in this town and try to book a performance for our troupe!" Peppita said, as she got up to leave.

"Hey, I know an amazing restaurant in this town!" Reen told Farleen and Clair. "Would you both like to go? It'll be on me! They serve really good desserts, too!"

"Desserts? I'm in!" Farleen said, turning to Clair. "Lady Clair, would you like to come with us too?"

"Thanks for the offer, but it's okay." Clair said as she headed towards the door to leave. "I would like to relax by myself for a while. I'll see you guys later."

"Gee, is she ALWAYS such a square?" Reen asked Farleen.

"Well… not so much as Lady Nel, but…" Farleen said as both of them walked out the door. "She has her moments though…"

Reen and Farleen made their way to a local restaurant that Reen was talking about before. They sat down, ordered their food, and started chatting.

"Farleen, I have a question" Reen asked. "I want to know what you think… do you think that Albel has a thing for Clair?"

"Huh? Lady Clair… and Albel?" Farleen replied in surprise. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Well, the thing is," Reen began explaining as she sipped on her Cream Soda. "They always seem to be so close to each other… I think Albel likes her, she's like the only person he ever talks or bothers listening to! He always ignores whatever I say… sigh…"

"Err… now that you mention it…" Farleen said, in thought. "Most of the time, Albel only ever talks to her, and no one else! I saw them talking together on the ship the other day… and he's always mean to everybody except for her… grrr… and there is that time in Peterny where they…"

"What did they do?" Reen asked, curious.

"Errr… nothing." Farleen said, as both of their foods arrived on the table. "The bottom line is that I think you might be right… err, and if that's true, then this is REALLY BAD!"

"I know!" Reen said, with a really serious face. "I'm the one that truly want Albel, not Clair… she shouldn't be the one spending time with him, it should be ME!"

"You really like Albel, don't you Reen?" Farleen asked, in thought.

"Yeah… I mean, not only is he handsome, but he's so strong, with such a cool personality… and he's so mysterious… I can't help but to fall for him" Reen said with dreamy eyes, fantasizing about Albel.

"Then you know what?" Farleen said as she all of a sudden got a determined look to her face. "Reen, I'm gonna help you and Albel get together!"

"Really?" Reen asked as she was indulging on her chocolate crepe. "But how come?"

"If what you said is true, and I think there is a good chance that you're right…" Farleen continued. "Then Albel and Lady Clair might get together… that would be horrible! Not only do I think he's not right for her, but it just won't work! He's a Glyphian… she's Aquarian… we used to be at war!"

"Ohmygosh… Farleen… thank you so much" Reen thanked Farleen, with a look of hope on her face. "So this can be good for everybody! But what do you plan to do?"

"Well," Farleen said as she planned things out in her head. "First of all, we should never give them the time to be together alone! So everytime we see her with him, we have to get them apart as soon as we can, any way we can!"

"I got it!" Reen said. "So every time we see them together, you can distract Clair and I can go in and flirt with Albel! This is perfect!"

"Alright!" Farleen yelled in determined voice. "Then let's do this!"

* * *

Meanwhile, both Lancar and Roger arrived at a local bar. They both found a table, and sat down, ready to begin their talk. 

"Okay big boy," Lancar said as he looked at Roger. "So now, I'm going to be telling you EVERYTHING that you need to know about woman! So make sure you listen up, alright? If you miss anything I say, you'll regret it later!"

"I gotcha, Lancar!" Roger replied with enthusiasm.

"Good! Okay! But first things first…" Lancar said, as he called a waiter in the bar. "Since this is a real men's chat, we're going to need couple of drinks!"

"What would you like today, sir?" The Waiter asked.

"Gimme 10 bottles of the finest liquor you can find in this town!" Lancar said. "And make sure they're all cold ones!"

"Yes sir…" The waiter said, surprised with the amount Lancar ordered. "What would you like, kid?"

"Ummm… I can't drink liquor… so just give me some orange juice…" Roger said.

"Okay! As soon as I get started on some of those bottles, I can start with my stories!" Lancar said.

"Uh… don't you think you ordered a little too much?" Roger asked, with a sweatdrop.

"Don't worry!" Lancar said. "10 of these won't do anything to me! Plus, this is what the real men do; just sitting back, knocking back couple of the cold ones, and talking about woman!"

"Um… if you say so…" Roger said, little concerned about how this was going.

Two hours later, Lancar had chugged back about 24 bottles of Otanim's finest liquor. Lancar sat back, with a dazed look on his face, apparently in a really good mood.

"So… hic the key iz… you have to be direct with these women! hic you can't just sit back and expect thingz to happen, it AIN'T gonna happen I tell ya! hic You have to go talk to 'em and KNOCK THEM OFF THEIR FEET! hic that's what ya have to do!" Lancar rambled on.

"Uhhhh… Lancar… are you sure you're okay?" Roger asked. "Are you sure you didn't have too much?"

"Heh? Too much? TOO MUCH? hic NO amount of drinks are too much for us REAL MEN! Waiter! hic WAITER! Bring me 5 more, now!"

"Um, I think you're going overboard…" Roger said, intimidated by Lancar's drunken stupor.

"I'm in COMPLETE control! Don't worry bout me! Just listen, kid! hic okey, let me go on, I have another GOOD example of what happenz to men are too CHICKEN to talk to women… hic you see, there was this guy Lieber, rite? He wanted Maria but what did he DO? NOTHING! What did he say? NUTHIN! Who did he end up with? hic NO ONE! That stupid little…"

"Th..thanks for the talk Lancar…" Roger said, thinking inside that he learned absolutely nothing from this whole ordeal. "I… think we should go now!"

"EH? Where ya think ur going? I ain't done! I AIN'T DONE! Get back here kid!" Lancar yelled as he became even dazier after knocking back 5 straight bottles in a row.

"I'm outta here…" Roger said as he slowly slipped out from his seat and ran towards the exit. Soon after, Lancar fell face first into the table, passing out from all the Alchohol he consumed.

"Grrrr… that old man taught me absolutely nothing!" Roger said in anger as he walked down the nighttime street. "How am I supposed to get Peppita to like me?"

"Roger?" Peppita called Roger from far behind as she caught him totally by surprise. "Roger? What are you doing out here? Where's everybody else?"

'_Ummm…UMMM… just me and Peppita? Alone here on the street? Roger, say something you idiot! Say something!_' his conscience told him as his body was paralyzed with all the nerve.

"You okay Roger?" Peppita asked. "It's getting late, we should get back to the Inn!" she said as she grabbed Roger's hand to pull him towards her direction.

"AHH!" Roger yelled, freaking out. "I GOTTA GO! SEE YA!" he said as he ran off, blazing down the street.

"Gee, what's wrong with him?" Peppita asked, confused why Roger just ran off.

* * *

'_Bah… more I stay on this planet, the more affinity I'm having for it…'_ Albel thought to himself standing outside off the side of the street. _'Why am I feeling this way? I've never been on this dumb planet before… why does everything feel familiar to me? None of this makes sense!_' 

"Albel?" Clair said as she walked towards to where Albel was. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just thinking, that's all." Albel replied, "What brings you out here?"

"I was just enjoying my alone time again…" Clair explained, walking beside where Albel was standing. "I was thinking about couple things, too."

"…" Albel said nothing at first as he turned to her to ask her a question. "Hey, is there anything that is familiar to you in this planet?"

"Something familiar?" Clair asked, surprised that Albel asked him a question. "Well, the environment here does seem pretty similar to our home… but why do you ask?"

"There is something about this planet that is making me too comfortable." Albel explained with a frown on his face. "I don't like it one bit."

"It's most likely just the environment…" Clair said. "But is there something else that you feel familiar with? But, any of us here being on this planet in the past would be impossible…"

Meanwhile, Reen and Farleen were standing behind the corner of the building, looking as Albel and Clair had their conversion.

"There they are again!" Farleen whispered. "uggghhh… what is he doing with Lady Clair this time?"

"Okay… we do as we planned!" Reen said, with a determined look. "You ready?"

"Let's go!" Farleen said, as both of them emerged from the corner.

"Albel… is that why…" Clair asked Albel. "Is that why you've been getting those headach…" As Clair was middle of her speech, Farleen rushed besides her to take her away.

"Lady Clair!" Farleen said, pulling Clair away. "You HAVE to come and see this store! They're selling so many cool things… come on, I have to show you!"

"F…Farleen…" Clair replied, hesistant but getting pulled along.

"Heehee… hey Albel!" Reen said cheerfully as she grabbed Albel's arm, dragging him along. "This town has a really good view of the night sky by seaside! Can yougo with me? Pleeeease? It's so beautiful and romantic!"

"Bah!" Albel tried to shake her off, annoyed. "Leave me alone!"

"Awww… common… let's look around the town first then! Hey, I know this really good dessert place… it's my treat!" Reen said as she persistently dragged Albel away.

"…" Clair looked at Albel and Reen with a look of fluster, as Farleen dragged her away.

The next morning, the party left the Inn, everybody rested up and heading down to the Port.

"Phew… I slept so well… that move yesterday took a lot out of me." Raditz said, stretching under warm morning sun.

"You sure you feel alright?" Farleen asked.

"Yeah, I'm 100 percentand ready to go!" Raditz replied. "I didn't miss anything last night, did I?"

"Nah… we all just walked around the town, that's all!" Peppita said.

"Whoa…" Lancar said, bit dazed from the night before. "I got a little headache, but I'm good to go!"

"Alright then!" Raditz said as the party boarded the ship "It's time to go to Clatos!"

* * *

**Chapter 23: Clatos – the truth of the past**

After a few hours, the ship from Otanim finally arrived at the port in Clatos. Clatos, to surprise of everybody, was a very small village with very peaceful atmosphere.

"WOOOO! I'm home!" Raditz yelled, as he ran out of the ship to embrace his hometown. "I haven't been home in ages! I usually just stick around in Sylvalant so that I can train on the Demon Island."

"This is… certainly a small town." Clair said. "Nothing like what I expected…"

"Yeah, it's kind of like Arias! Small but peaceful…" Farleen commented.

"Hehe, it feels more like Surferio to me." Roger said.

"Oh, Clatos is not a big town by any means… it's just a small village by seashores." Raditz said, as he led everybody to the town library. "It's the smallest town in the Moore Continent, maybe even the smallest town on this planet! Well, maybe it's bigger than Dulce… but still… it's all good. It's small but very cozy and peaceful!"

"That's for sure!" Reen agreed. "I've been here several times… it's a really good place to just get away for a while, it's really peaceful!"

"Yup… anyways, guys, follow me." Raditz said, standing not far from the entrance to the library. "The town library is here. Let's go in."

The group entered the small library which was surprisingly pretty neat and tidy. It was just like something one would expect out of a small town library.

"Wow!" Reen yelled in excitement as she looked around. "Look at all these antiques and old rare books… these might worth millions!"

"Welcome everyone, what can I help you with?" The librarian women greeted the party. Would you li… oh my, wait for a second, Raditz, honey, is that you?" she asked as she noticed Raditz with the group.

"Hi mom, I'm home." Raditz said.

"Raditz!" his mom yelled. "How can you just run away from home like that for the past 2 months? You didn't even write or call or anything at all either! Your father and I were so worried… never run off like that again!"

"Uhh… heh… sorry, mom." Raditz apologized. "Umm… so, pops is out of town again I'm guessing, right?"

"Of course… especially at a time like this, the Planetary Government needs him!" Raditz' mom said. "There's been a big crisis with outbreak of demons from other planets, you know… have you kept up with the news?"

"Of course…" Raditz said. "Oh, by the way mom, these are my friends. We're here to read some stuff from the library."

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Farrence." Clair said with a bow. "We've been on a journey and your son has been a great help."

"It's good to see him being productive for once!" Raditz' mom said. "So, what can I help you folks with? Are you guys looking for books on Ancient Roakian heraldry?"

"Heraldry?" Farleen asked.

"It's what you call Runology in your world." Lancar answered. "It's called symbology in our world, but heraldry is the old term for it."

"I see…" Clair said.

"Mom," Raditz asked. "We're looking for our ancestor's ancient memoirs… that's in the archive over there in the right corner, right?"

"Yes they are, but… why do you need to look at those?" Raditz' mom asked. "Those are more than 400 years old…"

"We have our reasons… thanks mom." Raditz thanked her mom as everybody followed him to the right hand corner. Raditz looked through the shelves, searching for the book that he was looking for.

"Let's see…" Raditz said. "_Ratix Farrence: 327 – 413 SD_. This one is it! Alright everybody, let's read this thing!"

Everybody looked into the memoirs closely as Raditz began reading out the writings.

"Let's see… the year 346 SD… I think it's this! Okay…

_'Galactic year 346. This was the one year I shall never forget for rest of my life. This was the year where the infamous petrification virus outbreak on Roak began. My adventures began when the first news of the outbreaks were passed to our village from the Town of Cool. Father of my friend, Milly Killet, who became my beloved wife later on in life, went over to Cool to investigate the situation only to contract the virus as well. Milly, my friend Dorn Mateo, and myself all went on a journey to Mt. Metox to look for the Legendary Herb Metox… but that's where it all really began. At the summit, we met up with two people from Planet Earth, named Ronixis J. Kenni and Iria Silverstoli…'_

"Ronixis J. Kenni? The legendary Federation hero… I've heard of his accomplishments in Roak, yeah. I remember now." Lancar commented. "Carry on."

_'…unfortunately, the situation on Roak was getting worse. We were told by the Earthlings that there was no cure to the disease, and that the only way to look for the cure is to look for the original host of the disease. After meeting with Resonian officials, we discovered that the original host of the virus had died 300 years prior. At that moment, we had lost hope, but my friend Ronixis J. Kenni had another idea. Onboard his Spaceship Calnus, he took us to a mysterious Planet called Styx which had an artifact called the Time Gate that allowed us to travel 300 years back in time…'_

"Styx? Time Gate?" Peppita yelled. "That's!…"

"Shhhhhh!" Lancar said holding his index finger to his mouth, telling Peppita to be quiet. "Keep quiet… don't say anything."

"Sorry…" Peppita apologized. "Let's keep reading."

_'…what happened after this point was the long, adventurous journey that I had to take in Roak from the year 45 SD. There were so many things that happened then, and since this is the memoir about my life and not this adventure, I shall not write the story here.'_

"WHAT?" Albel yelled. "That's where it ends? This bloody book didn't tell us anything about the Demon world at all!"

"W…wait!" Raditz yelled, flustered. "There is something else here! Hold on…"

_'If one would like to find out about the long and treacherous journey that me and my comrades went through during this time, then I feel that one must prove themselves, by going through trials and tribulations that we had gone through at that time. It is deemed to be highly classified information, yet I have decided to write another log about our adventures since I thought that it should be remembered. However, only the strongest and the bravest shall find out the truth. I have placed this said log somewhere within the Cave in Mt. Metox, a place not for the weak of heart.' _

"This is it!" Raditz yelled. "That's where we need to go… we need to go to Mt. Metox Cave and find this information!"

"Man, nothing is going to be simple here, huh?" Roger complained.

"That's just the way I like it." Albel said. "Some things are better done the hard way. It doesn't matter, I'm going to this cave… if someone is too scared go, then don't hold me back by coming along."

"Heh, the guy is right." Lancar said as he cracked his knuckles. "This is just the way I like it. We'll just have to tackle this place, and find out the truth!"

"Count me in!" Raditz said. "You guys will need a guide on how to get there, anyway."

"We're coming too, of course." Clair said, looking at Farleen. "We didn't come all the way here just to give up."

"Same here!" Peppita said, with determined look. "If what we did 2 years ago taught me anything, it's to never give up and never fear! I'm coming, too!"

"Then what are you all waiting for, fools?" Albel asked with a slight grin, as he walked out of the library. "We shouldn't waste any time. We leave right now."

"Let's go!" Everybody yelled.

* * *

As everybody walked out of the Library, Raditz walked towards Reen with couple books in his hand. 

"Uhh…" Raditz mumbled. "Here are some ancient heraldry books if you want it…I snuck it out of the Library… I guess I can give it to you since it doesn't really have anything important… so… I guess this is good bye, huh?"

"What? OH… the books…" Reen said, surprised. "Thanks Raditz. But it's okay. It was kind of rude for me to ask you to give me the village's ancient treasures in the first place… heehee…"

"But…" Raditz asked. "Isn't that why you came with us?"

"Yeah… initially…" Reen explained. "But I've changed my mind! I'm just going to come with you guys. All this is making me really curious… and I would like to find out something about my ancestors, too!"

"Wow…" Raditz said. "You're really serious?"

"I'm serious… and I guess the biggest reason is…" Reen continued. "Is because I like traveling with you guys…"

"Reen…" Raditz said in admiration.

"It's true… and I can't just leave my darling Albel just like that either" Reen said as she chased after Albel once again.

"Heh…" Raditz said to himself with a sweatdrop, feeling ignored again yet glad that Reen was staying. "Good to have you with us, Reen."

* * *

"Alright then." Albel said, standing at the exit of the Village. "Where are we supposed to find this cave?" 

"I can explain that one!" Reen said as she wrapped her arms around his once again. "We should head north until we reach the Town of Cool, then go north from that town to reach Mt. Metox!"

"Bah… get off me…" Albel said as he shook her off. "And we're not looking for the mountain… we're looking for a Cave from there. Where is this cave?"

"Ummm…" Reen pondered. "I don't know that for sure either… I only know this continent well because I'm from Portmis, but I don't know of any cave in Mt. Metox…"

"Don't worry!" Raditz said. "I know exactly where it is! It's well hidden, but I know the spot. Just follow me!"

"Alright then!" Lancar said. "Let's go to Mt. Metox!"

* * *

**Chapter 24: The thief at Cool**

The passage from Clatos to Cool was short and direct. The group was met with no resistance on the way, only running into wild animals, which they took care of easily. They eventually reached the Town of Cool without breaking a sweat.

"This is the town of Cool." Raditz explained. "It's been a while since we stocked up on supplies and stuff. Let's shop around here then head to the Mt. Metox cave quickly!"

"Town of Cool huh?" Lancar said. "Cool name for a town, pardon the pun."

"Alright." Clair said. "Let's split up to look for some supplies."

Raditz, Lancar and Clair went together so that they can gather supplies that the whole party would need. Everybody else split up, looking around town and also doing their own shopping.

"So, where are you going to go, Roger?" Peppita asked Roger.

"Um…UMMM…" Roger stuttered. "Well… can I… come with you?"

"Well, sure I guess…" Peppita said. "I'm going to the jewellery store, though. I don't think you'd be interested…"

"Nono… don't worry… I'm VERY interested… heh." Roger said, thinking afterwards and regretting his choice of words. _'DAMN… I shouldn't have said that! Real men don't like Jewels!'_

"Let's go then!" Peppita said as they both headed towards the accessories store. Peppita looked around, admiring the jewels. "Oh my gosh… look at that green pearl necklace charm! It's so beautiful!"

'_She likes it?' _Roger thought to himself. _'This is my chance!'_

"Peppita!" Roger said, putting on some sort of a glove and running out. "I'll be… right back! Don't go anywhere… alright?"

"Okay!" Peppita replied without even looking, concentrating on looking at jewels and accessories.

Meanwhile, Raditz, Lancar and Clair stood in front of the item shop, restocking on all the items and food that the party was going to need. As they were picking out what to buy, they were greeted by Roger.

"Hiya guys!" Roger asked. "Whatcha all doin?"

"Uhh, we told you we're going to go shopping right?" Raditz said. "What are you upto?"

"Ummm, nothing! I was just walking by and wanted to see what you guys were doin… okay then… see ya!" Roger said, as he ran off again.

"Strange boy…" Lancar said.

Meanwhile, Peppita was done looking around the store, picking out that necklace that she had wanted. "I'll take that green one, ma'am!"

"Thank you very much! That'll be 7000 fol!" The merchant women said.

"7000? Gosh… that's pretty hefty…" Peppita said as she reached back to her wallet to pay.

"HEY PEPPITA! huff" Roger said as he ran in, out of breath. "You didn't buy that necklace yet did ya?"

"Well… nooo…" Peppita said. "I was just going to…"

"Okay then! Don't worry about it, this one is on me! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEPPITA!" Roger said, going to the women to pay.

"…My birthday was four months ago…" Peppita said, surprised and pondering why Roger was going to buy the necklace for her.

"Ah, no sweat!" Roger said, grinning and paying the women "Consider it… a LATE birthday present! That's right! I mean, we haven't seen each other in 2 years, right? Consider it a present for your last two birthdays!"

"Ooookay…" Peppita said, still surprised. "Then thanks, Roger!… Um… hey… how come you have so much money, anyways? Didn't you… just come to this planet?"

"Ummmm…" Roger hesitated. "I sold couple things to Mr. Ruddle and Reen! Yeah, that's it… I had lots of goodies from Surferio… so I sold them!"

"Okey…" Peppita said, still wondering there was no way he could have had so much money.

Meanwhile, at the items shop, Raditz, Lancar, and Clair were done their shopping. They went over to the cash machine, ready to pay. Total price was 6200 fol.

"We really have to thank you, Raditz." Lancar said. "I really feel bad you're paying for all our stuff! Hey, as soon as everything's over, I'll pay you back, alright?"

"Thank you so much, Raditz." Clair said. "I don't know how to thank you enough… I don't know where we would be right now without you."

"Heh… don't worry about it guys!" Raditz said, little embarrassed. "It's all good! I got plenty to go around!"

As Raditz reached for his wallet, he discovered that all he had was measly 600 fol…

"HEY!" Raditz yelled, stunned. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL MY MONEY?"

* * *

Albel walked around the town alone, still little annoyed that he was getting too comfortable with the surroundings. The feeling for him wasn't particularly a bad one, of course, but he just didn't like the confusion that it was creating for him. As he walked by one of the buildings, he saw a mural on the large grey brick wall. At that moment, he got the similar flashback to the one that he had in Peterny, only stronger and more vivid this time. 

'_T…This painting! This wall!' _Albel thought to himself, with cold sweats._ 'I… I've seen this mural! But… that's impossible! What the hell is this thing? Why is this here…'_

"HEY ALBEL!" Reen yelled as she interrupted his thought by putting her hand over his eyes. "Guess who?"

"Bah!" Albel yelled in surprise. "what's your problem?"

"Heehee, I just wanted to surprise you, that's all." Reen said as she revealed herself to Albel. In the corner, Farleen was looking on, giving Reen a thumbs-up.

"So what are you upto?" Reen asked.

"… That's none of your business." Albel said.

"Hey, don't tell me you were looking at this mural!" Reen asked. "Oh my gosh, you were staring at this alone, and in deep thought? Wow… I never knew you were an artiste, too! That's soooo cool… and romantic…"

"…" Albel didn't say anything at first, then turning to Reen to ask her a question. "Hey, do you know what this mural is all about?"

"This mural? OF COURSE!" Reen replied cheerfully, excited that Albel has finally asked her something. "This is an ancient mural from over 700 years ago! It's a really famous painting, everybody knows about it! They say that a great artist painted this long ago, inspired from the impression that he got from an artifact… an artifact from an ancient race that lived here on the Moore Continent long time ago!"

"Artifact?" Albel asked. "Ancient race…"

"Yeah We call them Moorians." Reen replied. "They came to this Planet from Planet Earth thousands of years ago… or at least that's what they say."

"Hmph…" Albel grunted, in thought. '_But how the hell would **I** remember this painting…'_

"Okay, that was fun, Albel!" Reen yelled, pulling Albel away. "Let me show you around this town! Let's go to that item shop over there!"

"Bah…" Albel struggled as he got pulled along.

* * *

"Pshh…" Raditz pouted as he and the rest of the group walked out of the town to the north. "I can't believe I got robbed." 

"I'm really sorry about that… it's because you happened to travel with us…" Clair apologized with a bow. "We'll repay you somehow. I promise."

"…Yeah… we'll all repay you soon!" Roger said, with a look of guilt.

"Thank you for paying for our things, Reen" Lancar said, turning around to thank Reen. "You came by to the shop just in time!"

"Heehee, no sweat!" Reen replied with a wink. "Just glad to help you guys!"

"Alright. So where is this cave?" Albel asked Raditz.

"It's actually not far from here at all." Raditz replied. "There is a hidden entrance on the foothills of the mountain, besides a big monolith! Just follow me, we'll be there in matter of minutes!"

"Great! Time to go treasure hunting!" Farleen yelled in cheery voice as the group headed towards Mt. Metox.


	8. Part 8: Chapters 25, 26, 27

**Chapter 25: Mt. Metox Cave**

"Here we are!" Raditz said, as the group reached the mountain wall with a monolith, not too far from the exit of Town of Cool. "The secret entrance is here. There is this large boulder here blocking it, though. We're going to have to move it."

"That's huge…" Farleen said, staring at the immense size of the boulder. "It's going to be tough to move that thing…"

"Do we HAVE to move it?" Lancar asked. "Can we just go through it? If we don't particularly need to seal the entrance again…"

"Um… what do you mean?" Raditz asked. "It doesn't matter to me if this is left open or not, but…"

"Okay then!" Lancar said, cracking his knuckles, motioning everybody to stand back. "HIYAAA!" He yelled as he pulled his arm back and punched straight into the boulder. With a thunderous impact, the boulder broke into pieces, revealing the secret entrance to the Mt. Metox Cave.

"Let's go!" Lancar said, as everybody looked on with surprise.

"Wow…" Raditz commented in awe and admiration. "So what they say about Klausians is true… they ARE far stronger than us…"

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Albel said, as he walked into the cave. "Get moving, fools."

* * *

As the group walked in deeper into the cave, they were greeted with total darkness looming throughout the cave. Soon enough, they advanced far away enough from the entrance point so that their source of light was completely cut off.

"Man, we can hardly see anything!" Roger complained. "Shouldn't caves like this have some place to light up?"

"Well, this cave used to be a mine with lots of ores and minerals…" Raditz said, walking slowly with his hands out so that he can progress forward. "But they sealed it off long time ago after they mined everything out… damn, we should have brought a lamp… maybe we should go back to Cool to get one."

"Nah… no need to do that!" Reen said. "Remember when I said these orbs can help me with lots of things as I travel? Well, situation like this is exactly what I mean!"

Reen gathered her orbs together in a circular formation, and charged it with her heraldric energy. The orbs all rose into the air, and with a brilliant flash, lit up the entire cave.

"Wow! That's amazing!" Farleen praised Reen. "Now we can see the entire cave without any problems!"

"Hmph. You did something useful for once." Albel said, walking forward. "According to that book, it said this memoir would be hidden somewhere in the Northeast corner of the cave. Move it."

"Albel THANKED ME!" Reen said, absolutely touched that Albel recognized her. "Awww, that's so sweet ♥"

The group headed north, taking the right path at the fork, so that they can head northeast. Their walk had been peaceful so far, without any interruptions. Suspicious of the fact, Clair turned to everybody to ask.

"Don't you guys think that it's been… too peaceful?" Clair asked. "We haven't encountered one single monster so far… in a cave like this, I find that a little strange…"

"I know…" Reen agreed. "Didn't the book also say that this place was dangerous? That it was not for the weak of heart? Well, it doesn't look like it, unless you are afraid of the dark or something…"

"Keep your eyes peeled." Raditz said, looking around, his tail pointing up. "Who knows if something can appear at any time... I really doubt that my ancestors would lie about something like that."

"He's right." Lancar said. "My quad scanner isn't picking up any trace of lifeforms in the immediate area, but never let your guard down."

"Gotcha!" Peppita said as she walked ahead, looking back to the group. However, just at that moment, she walked into something hard and solid right in front of her. "AHHHH!" Peppita yelped as her scream took everyone by surprise.

"WHOA!" Reen freaked out, her heart pounding from the sudden surprise. "Peppita, don't scare me like that! Watch where you're going..."

"Uh...ummmmmm... what's…!" Peppita muttered as she stared down at what she just ran into, paralyzed with fear.

"That's!..." Albel yelled, as everybody looked at the object. There was not one, not two, but three solid rock statues in front of them, in a human form.

"Why the hell is there a statue like this in a middle of a cave?" Lancar asked. "This is certainly no place for a decoration like this..."

"Those eyes..." Clair said as she stared at the eyes of the statues. "They have the look of fear in their eyes..."

"They look like ordinary townsfolk... Whaaa?" Roger yelled as his comment was interrupted by something breaking down through the ceiling of the cave. It was a giant White Cockatrice bird, looking quite menacing and hostile.

"What the hell?" Albel blurted as everybody scrambled in reaching back for their weapons to get ready for battle. However, the Cockatrice attacked without any hesitation. As its eyes flashed, the Cockatrice shot out three quick pulses of energy beams at Roger, Lancar, and Farleen, whom were standing closest to it. Because of the preemptive attack, they had no time to evade or react to the beams.

"Gwaaa!" Lancar grunted, as all three were hit by the beam and were sent staggering back. "Damn..."

"Lancar! Roger! Farleen!" Clair yelled in concern. "Are you guys all right? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, but...I...fe..." Lancar trailed off as he felt his body becoming heavy and rigid.

"I... can't... move..." Farleen struggled to say, as her body slowly turned grey, and solid.

"Ah..." Roger yelped faintly as his body completely turned into stone, along with Farleen and Lancar.

"How horrible!" Reen cried, as she ran for cover. "Everybody, BE CAREFUL!"

"Crap!" Raditz cursed, as he leaped back from the Cockatrice. "It petrified them?"

"Sorry guys, I can't fight!" Reen said, hiding in fear. "I have to use my orbs... if I attack then I can't light up this cave..."

"Just keep yourself out of harm's way, Reen!" Clair yelled as she leaped back into her battle stance. "We'll take care of it!"

"AIR SLASH!" Raditz yelled as he shot a rapid wind blast at the Cockatrice with a swing of his sword. However, the Cockatrice avoided the attack by simply flying up in the air.

"Damn, that fat thing can fly, too?" Raditz cursed.

"KIYAAA!" Albel yelled as he jumped at the cockatrice monster, hacking away at it with his Double Slash. However, the Cockatrice evaded the blows, and flied up to charge itself in energy; eventually creating a barrier around its entire body.

"Take this!" Albel yelled as he swung back for another powerful slash at the Cockatrice. However, the slash was deflected by the solid barrier that the Cockatrice had put up.

"Shit!" Albel cursed, disgusted at the ineffectiveness of his attacks.

It was Cockatrice's turn to attack. It raised its wings, and flapped them forward, shooting numerous feathers that were sharp as needles right where Raditz was.

"RIFT WAVE!" Raditz yelled as he created a round shockwave around him to deflect the feather attack. "It's time to say your prayers! BURN!" Raditz taunted as he charged up his fist for a counterattack

"BURST KNUCKLES!" Raditz yelled as a fiery ball of energy shot out from his fist, homing in and exploding on the Cockatrice. The big bird was sent flying back from the impact, but not damaged thanks to its solid barrier.

"Shit, it's tough!" Raditz cursed.

"I'll break that barrier!" Clair said as she tossed both of her daggers at the Cockatrice like a Frisbee, yelling "FLYING GUILLOTINE!" However, the attack simply deflected off the barrier as if it just hit a wall.

"We're going to need more power!" Peppita yelled, as she ran up to get ready for a dance. "POWER TO ALL MY COMRADES!" Peppita yelled as her fluent, gracious Power Dance lighted up the ground, enhancing the strength of everybody standing in range.

"Heh, not bad, kid." Albel said with a grin, pleased with his increase in power, as he dashed towards the Cockatrice again. "DIE maggot!"

"Thanks Peppita! I can really feel the power!" Raditz thanked Peppita, as he also charged towards Cockatrice to attack.

"Here I go!" Clair yelled, as she also jumped in to attack.

With confidence, Albel, Raditz, and Clair all slashed away at the Cockatrice furiously. However, every single one of their attacks were deflected, still not strong enough to break its barrier even with the enhanced power from the power dance.

"Ka... Damn!" Albel cursed.

Cockatrice flew up again, shooting numerous feathers and petrification beams at the fighters. Everybody was forced to scramble back, having their hands full with just dodging and deflecting its attack.

"That barrier is impossible to break!" Raditz cursed as he deflected the needles away with his sword. "How are we supposed to penetrate that thing?"

'_...A light beam…' _Peppita went into deep thought, as an idea flashed in her mind. _'! Maybe it can work!... it's kinda risky... and it's a new trick I haven't tried for the circus yet… but I have to try it!'_

"I'm going to try to trick it! Get away everyone!" Peppita yelled as she ran right in front of the Cockatrice, going into another dance sequence. "Alright you big GOON! Hit me with all you got!"

"Peppita!" Reen yelled in concern. "Are you out of your mind?"

Without a moment's hesitation, the Cockatrice shot the petrification beam towards Peppita. At the last possible second, Peppita yelled "ILLUSION MIRROR!" to create a reflective, mirror-like rectangular energy barrier behind her, then flipping backwards into it. The beam reflected off from the mirror and shot right back to the source, hitting Cockatrice with its own attack. In a matter of few seconds, the Cockatrice was turned into solid stone.

"G…Great job Peppita!" Clair yelled.

"Wow, Peppita, that was amazing!" Raditz praised her.

"Way to outsmart the monster! I bet it feels stupid now!" Reen yelled in triumph.

"Hmph." Albel said, sheathing his sword. "Foolishly daring, yet effective. What do you know, the kid has more guts than I thought."

"Thanks... that was a new circus trick I was working on… I'm glad it worked…" Peppita said, rushing to the rock statues of Lancar, Roger, and Farleen in panic. "But... what about them? How do we bring them back to normal?"

"That's not a problem." Clair said, as she charged up for a spell. "DISPEL!" Clair yelled, as sparkle of light showered over Lancar, Farleen and Roger, bringing them back to their normal state.

"Hey... what the..." Lancar asked in confusion.

"Wha... what happened?" Farleen asked.

"Huh?" Roger looked around, puzzled.

"You were all turned into stone by the bird's attack," Clair explained. "Don't worry. It's all over. I'm sorry, we were in middle of a battle, so I couldn't cure you earlier."

"Alright, you can all explain it to the fools later." Albel said, walking ahead. "We're not done our search. So let's keep going."

* * *

The group eventually reached the end of the Cave's northeast corner. The group looked around the dark surrounding in search of the book, but the place looked like a dead end by all means.

"There's nothing..." Albel said, in frustrated voice. "So is this a hoax after all? Or did someone take it already?"

"Hold on for a second..." Raditz said. "This place used to be a mine... so maybe it's buried within these walls."

"I can check for that," Lancar said as he took out his quad scanner, putting it against the wall so he can analyze it. "Hmm... okay... alright... there's something behind this spot, right here. It could just be an ore, but maybe it's what we're looking for."

"Okay!" Roger said, taking out his twin axe. "Leave the digging to me!"

After hammering away at the said spot at the wall for about 10 minutes, the group finally found a small treasure chest that was hidden inside. Albel opened the chest without hesitation, and discovered a small book labeled _My adventures: Roak of the past– by Ratix Farrence._

"This is it! This must be that log it was talking about!" Raditz announced the discovery with excitement. "Let's get out of this cave first, to somewhere safe... then read it, quick!"

* * *

**Chapter 26: Eye of the Truth**

The group exited the Mt. Metox cave, back out to the overworld that was gleaming with sunshine of mid afternoon. As soon as the group got out, Albel's attention shifted back to the book without a moment's hesitation.

"We read the book, now." Albel told Raditz. "It's time to see if it's a hoax, or if it actually tells us anything about entering the Daemoneum."

"Alright, I got ya…" Raditz said as he flipped the book open to read it. "Let's start from the beginning." Everybody gathered around Raditz, ready to listen closely to what Raditz was going to read out.

_'My adventures from Roak of the past: By using the aforementioned artifact known as the Time Gate, Ronixis, Iria, Milly and myself were able to go back 300 years back in time to the Roak of the past, Galactic year 45 to be precise. However, we were all initially separated at first, forcing us on a journey to find each other before we could resume our main mission. Along the way, we were joined by new comrades and friends that I shall never forget about for rest of my life; Cius, Sir Ashlay, Fear, Joshua, Marvel, Perisie, Tinek… they were all best allies that one can ever hope for.'_

"Sir Ashlay… Sir Cius…" Raditz commented. "They are all known as legends here on this land, but I didn't know they all traveled together on this journey!"

"Joshua… was one of my ancestors I think…I'm not sure." Reen said, in deep thought.

"Skip all the boring useless parts." Albel said impatiently. "Let's get to the part where he talks about Daemoneum, if there is one at all."

_'… After reuniting with Ronixis and Milly at last, we finally embarked on our main journey; locating the original host of the virus. After getting the approval from Kings of all Four nations in our land, we marched onwards to a place called Parj Temple, in search of an item called the "Eye of the Truth", a crystal ball which supposedly could locate anything that one was searching for. Upon going through the Parj Temple and its highly technologically advanced Inner Sanctum, we eventually discovered that the "Eye of the Truth" was a device that was created by ancient Moorians from Earth to create Dimensional portals. By using it, we were able to enter a place called Daemoneum, the land of the demons that exist in another dimension.'_

"_Eye of the truth_…" Albel commented. "So that's the name of the device that can take us to the Daemoneum. Perfect, now we know what to look for."

"So there IS a way to enter the Daemoneum again! That's great!" Lancar said, with his voice full of hope. "So it says we have to go to this place called the Parj Temple, huh?"

"Raditz, do you know where this place is?" Clair asked.

"I've never heard of such place…" Raditz said. "Where could it possibly be? I know my geography pretty well, too, but… this is the first time I heard about a Temple of any sort."

"Wait a minute…" Reen intervened, pondering about where the place might be. "Raditz, you know about that blocked path to the northeast on the way from Tropp to Tartaroy, right? Do you think it would be there somewhere?"

"Hmm, maybe!" Raditz said. "The guards say that the entrance to that path is forbidden because there are lots of monsters beyond that point… but maybe they're not telling the truth… I think that's the only logical place where it can be."

"Yeah… I think it would be somewhere in the Astral Continent, either way." Reen said.

"Anyways, let's read on to the end… maybe there is more information." Clair said.

"Alright…" Raditz said, as he continued to read on.

_'After we successfully made our way through the Daemoneum, we entered a building called the Time and Space Lab, which was home to the King of the Demons, named Asmodeus. We had discovered then that Asmodeus was the original host of the virus that was spreading in our land. After a long, hard fought battle, we emerged victorious, and retrieved the serum that enabled us to develop the cure for the virus.'_

"Did you say… Time and Space Lab?" Clair asked immediately, remembering what Romero had said back when they met at the Daemoneum. "The Demon we met at the Daemoneum said something about that place…"

"Just as I thought. That building is their home base." Albel said. "All we have to do is enter that place and find their king… then kill him"

"Well, it won't be so simple, but at least now we know what to do!" Lancar said, turning to Raditz shortly after. "So where do you think we should go next? We have to find this Parj Temple place, but we have no idea where it is."

"We should go to Astral City." Raditz said. "That's the Capital city of Roak. We should request for an Audience with his majesty, so we can explain our situation… and maybe he will tell us where Parj Temple is located and grant us the access to it."

"Good idea. So where do we move to from here then?" Clair asked.

"That's going to be more walking on our part…" Reen explained with a sigh. "We have to go back all the way to Tartaroy, and take the ship from there to Astral City."

"Alright, on to Astral then!" Peppita said. "Let's get going!"

"Let's cross the mountains to Portmis." Raditz said, as everybody got ready to leave. "We can take the ship from there back to Otanim."

"But shouldn't we go back to Clatos?" Farleen asked.

"Ships don't come by too often to Clatos because it's a small village…" Raditz explained. "But Portmis is a big city, so ships should come more frequently there."

"We're going to Portmis? Yaaay! That means I'll be stopping by home then!" Reen happily said. "I haven't been home for 2 months! I wonder how my mom is doing… I want to introduce Albel to her"

"Time to go." Albel said, as everybody advanced forward to cross Mt. Metox, to Portmis.

* * *

**Chapter 27: The ambush**

After a long journey up and down Mt. Metox, the party finally reached Portmis valley, a wooded area surrounding the path between Mt. Metox and Portmis itself. Except for usual wild animals and couple fellworms, the party was met with no resistance in forms of enemies on the way.

"We're almost there now!" Reen said. "As soon as we get through this valley, we'll be at Portmis!"

"Phew… for once, this trip has been without too much trouble…" Farleen commented.

"Aw, come on, Farleen!" Roger whined. "You just jinxed us by saying that!"

"Jinx? There is no such thing as jinxing something, Roger! That's ridiculous…" Farleen said. "That's just a silly superstition!"

"Well… I don't believe it either, but…" Lancar said, noticing something coming at them through the bushes in the sidepath as a group of 5 Demon wizards eventually emerged to confront them. "In times like this, it makes it really hard to believe that it's just a coincidence…"

"Mortals…" One demon wizard said in emotionless voice. "End of your world is near, and so are your lives. Get ready to be burned in flames of eternal despair!"

"Demons?" Raditz said as he reached back for his sword to get ready for battle. "Crap, now they're appearing near cities… this is not good…"

"RAY!" one demon wizard yelled, as numerous laser beams from the sky rained down towards everybody in the party. With quick enough reaction, everybody dodged the beams safely, though just barely.

"ENERGY ARROW!" Farleen countered with her own spell, as number of powerful energy arrows homed in on one of the demon wizards, ripping through it like toilet paper.

"PANIC DANCE!" Peppita yelled as her dance sequence created an area of dark energy on the area beneath one of the Demons. The energy confused the demon, using a firebolt spell on one of its allies, burning it down.

"Heh, let me finish that one off!" Roger said as he tossed a disc-like object on the ground near the confused and staggering demon. The demon stepped right on Roger's Land Mines, blowing itself up into pieces.

"EARTH GLAIVE!" one of the two last remaining demons yelled as the rocks shot out from the ground underneath the party. Though it wasn't particularly damaging to the party, it was still enough to knock them all down.

"OW!" Farleen yelled in pain. "You'll pay for that! I'm going to shut all of you up!" she yelled as she charged up for another spell. "SILENCE!" The silence spell created a magic ring around the demon's necks, making them unable to speak, or cast a spell.

"AIR SLASH!" Raditz yelled out, as he sent the wind blast towards the helpless demon, ripping it away. Albel appeared behind the final demon, decapitating it with a swift, blurry slash to its neck.

"That was too easy!" Farleen yelled, feeling victorious.

"AWWW! You did it again!" Roger yelled.

"Hmph… is it just a foolish kid's superstition…" Albel asked himself, but then quickly flinched as he felt something coming up over them. "Or is this perhaps more accurate than we want it to be…"

"Heh heh. Not bad, mortals." An eerie voice from above commented. As the party looked up to see what it was, they saw a much tougher looking purple demon with bat wings descending down from above. "That was quite impressive. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Shen, responsible for bringing this planet the wrath of utter destruction."

"Bah… you surely talk much crap out of that disgusting face of yours, scum…" Albel taunted as he went into his battle stance. "I'm going to do you a favour of ripping out that repulsive head of yours and mashing it into pieces!"

"How amusing to hear an inferior being such as yourself say such boastful things." Shen said, landing on the ground and getting ready to fight. "I'll give you a great honour of getting killed personally by my own hand. Prepare yourself, mortals."

"GYAAA!" Albel yelled as he charged towards Shen with his katana. The demon evaded all of Albel's slashes easily then knocked him back with a wave of dark energy from his hand. As Shen glided forward to follow up on his attack on Albel, Clair jumped right in front of him to stand in the way.

"LEAF SLASH!" Clair yelled, as she disappeared in storm of leaves right in front of Shen, ready to appear from out of nowhere in front of Shen with the double spinning slash.

"Heh, foolish trick…" Shen said as he simply evaded Clair's slashes with a similar trick of his own. He disappeared to evade her leaf slash, and appeared behind her to blast her back with his dark wave.

"Ahhh!" Clair screamed as she hit the ground, in pain.

"No!" Reen screamed out as she rushed over to Albel and Clair to help. "HEALING STAR!" she yelled as her orbs rose up high above the sky like a star over fallen Albel and Clair, charged up in divine healing energy. The energy then showered down on them to heal their minor wounds, allowing them to get up to their feet.

"Neat tricks." Shen commented. "But in the end you will all -"

"TWIN SLASH!" Raditz yelled as he appeared out of nowhere behind Shen to deliver a wicked flying double slash on his back. The slashes cut through the flesh on Shen's back with precision, sending it staggering forward with a big wound. "UGGHH! How… dare…you…"

"We caught him napping!" Lancar said as he ran up forward to attack staggering Shen. "ACROBAT LOCUS!" Lancar first knocked Shen upwards with a double front kick, then jumped into the air to deliver a long flurry of bone-crushing punches and kicks all over its body. "GWAAA!" Shen yelled in pain as the last hit sent him crashing hard on the ground.

"You're done for, worm." Albel sneered. "Maggots like you always get put in their place. Now, prepare to die… painfully of course."

"Why… you… stupid… mortal…" Shen struggled up, on the brink of defeat, as he charged up for one final attack. "I'll… have you… suffering… in… pain!" As soon as he finished his last word, Shen charged at Albel furiously with his hand covered in weird green energy. "VIRAL HACK!" he yelled as he made a rapid cat-like swipe at Albel.

Albel, anticipating the move, sidestepped to avoid the slash, but the fingertips of Shen still caught Albel in the chest, making a minor cut wound. At the instant moment he sidestepped the attack, Albel made a large crescent moon-like flash with his sword, right through Shen's midsection. When the dust settled, Albel sheathed his sword, as Shen's body fell apart into two pieces.

"THAT WAS SO COOL!" Reen yelled out in admiration, with glitter in her eyes.

"Now die a painful death, you scum." Albel said, spitting at Shen's upper body. "Rest of your kind will be following your fate soon enough."

"Gah… ha…ha…HAHAHAHA cough" Shen laughed hysterically, spurting blood out of his mouth. "You're… done… for! Get ready… to suffer…a…slow…painful…death! UHAHAHA…ha…h…"

"It's dead." Raditz said as he examined Shen's now lifeless corpse. "That one was really strong… We should be thankful it let its guard down, or else things could have gotten really tough."

"Hey, we just defeated one of their main henchmen!" Roger told the group in hopeful voice. "We were beaten pretty badly before at the Daemoneum, but now we're much stronger, too! I think we can defeat that demon the next time we see it!"

"Let's hope so!" Lancar said. "Let's get to the Daemoneum first, though."

"Enough talk. Let's get…go..ing…" Albel started talking, then trailed off as he suddenly felt a hot flash on his chest. His body started getting hot, and his head started becoming heavy. His face turned pale white, as he suddenly started feeling dizzy, everything around him becoming a blur. Albel dropped to his knees, as if his energy has been sucked right out of him.

"Albel!" Reen yelled, rushing to his side. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I….can't…see…" Albel struggled to say, as he supported his own body with his hand the ground, trying to get up. However, more he tried, the more energy he seemed to be losing. After a weak struggle, Albel dropped to the floor.

"ALBEL!" Clair shouted his name as she ran to him with look of panic.

"It must be that wound!" Peppita said, noticing the wound on his chest. "Maybe it was poisonous!"

"ANTIDOTE!" Clair didn't waste any time in casting her antidote spell. "That should get rid of the poison…"

"Gw…gwa…aa" Albel kept moaning in pain as the Antidote spell didn't seem to have any effect.

"H…how? AN…ANTIDOTE!" Clair tried again in desperation as she casted the spell once more. The result was the same – Albel's condition seemed to be only getting worse.

"We can't cure the poison?" Farleen asked in panic. "Even with runology?"

"That's…impossible…" Clair murmured, trembling in panic.

"Damn!" Lancar cursed as he ran in to pick up unconscious Albel off the ground "Just what kind of poison is this?"

"COME ON! We need to get him to a doctor, QUICK!" Reen screamed out hysterically, "Portmis is not too far… we gotta hurry!" At her command, everybody started to run up the path to Portmis so they can get there as soon as possible.

'_Albel…_' Clair prayed to herself while running, as a drop of cold sweat trickled down the side of her face. _'Please hang in there… Please…'_


	9. Part 9: Chapters 28, 29, 30

**Chapter 28: Search for the Metox**

The Capital city of the Moore Continent, Portmis, was busy with Sailors, Traders, and Travellers all blending in and carrying on their day's work throughout the town as usual. This city has always been known as one of the most beautiful cities in Roak throughout the planet's history, and remained so even to the day. However, for Clair, Lancar, Raditz, and rest the gang, there was no time to appreciate the beauty that this town offered. The 8 warriors ran right through the entrance of the town and through a big crowd of people, in desperation to get Albel, who had been mysteriously poisoned, some immediate medical attention.

"Reen!" Lancar asked, while holding unconscious Albel. "You're from this town, right? Where can we see the doctor?"

"R…right there! Right over there in that house to the right!" Reen explained in panic as she pointed and ran towards a relatively small house.

"T…that small house? Are you sure?" Lancar asked to make sure, thinking that it was pretty small for a hospital. "Shouldn't we go to a major hospital in this town?"

"Trust me!" Reen yelled, as she waved everybody in. "Dr. Luria is a great doctor! She will treat him right away, I promise! Come on! Let's go in!"

As the barged through the door, they saw an elegant middle-aged women with long black hair. Not expecting there to be anybody coming in at this time, she was quite surprised that she had a patient… an emergency patient at that.

"Reen?" The Doctor asked in surprise, as she realized who had just come in. "Is that you? Oh my… I haven't seen you for months… this is first time since you left for Tro…"

"DOCTOR!" Reen yelled in hysteria, cutting her off. "We have a friend here that needs to be treated, quick! We were fighting this demon and then he was infected with this mysterious poison… and it's getting worse and worse! Please help him!"

"What's that? Okay… it's alright… calm down, Reen. I'll look at him right away." The Doctor assured them. "Bring him to this room over here, please."

"Well?" Clair asked in panic, as Dr. Luria finished examining Albel's condition. "Is he going to be alright, Doctor?"

"This is not good…" Dr. Luria explained with a grim look. "This is not an ordinary poison… he's been infected with some kind of a virus… unfortunately, I've never seen or heard of any type of virus like this before. And his condition is worsening by the minute…"

"What?" Reen yelled hysterically as she looked at Albel, who's breathing was becoming more heavy and rough, with concern. "You mean… you can't treat him? No… there's gotta be something we can do!"

"Shit, I'm afraid she is right…" Lancar said, looking through the database in his quad scanner. "There is absolutely nothing in the Federation database about this kind of virus…"

"Is this… the virus of the demons?" Peppita asked with a look of concern on her face. "How are we supposed to cure him? His condition is becoming worse!"

"Albel…" Clair called his name weakly as her voice was now riddled with despair. "It can't be…"

"Albel?" Dr. Luria asked in surprise. "Albel… is his name?"

"Yeah." Raditz confirmed. "Is there anything we can do for him?"

"Um, never mind…." Dr. Luria said as she regained her focus, after her mind had momentarily drifted off for few seconds. "There might still be a way… I can't confirm if it will work, but we're just going to have to have faith in the legend…"

"There is a way?" Clair asked, her voice now charged again with hope. "What do we have to do to save Albel, Doctor?"

"Our only chance might be the Metox…" Dr. Luria explained. "The legendary herb Metox… it is said in the legends that the Metox is able to cure even the most deadliest of diseases. But…" she trailed off.

"But? But what?" Reen asked in panic.

"… From what I've heard, they're almost non-existent nowadays." Raditz intervened, with a grim face. "They can be found in Mt. Metox, but they're extremely rare in this day in age. I've only seen it once in my life, and that was when I was a kid…"

"Plus, the season in which the metox grows has passed already…" Dr. Luria said. "Realistically, chances are slim… but that's the only method that I can think of."

"Alright! Come on everybody!" Reen yelled as she barged out the door, waving everybody forward. "What are you all waiting for? There might not be much time left! Let's head over to the Mt. Metox and find this thing!"

"Ok, I'm comin'!" Lancar said, following Reen. "Let's go find this thing!"

"I'm coming, too!" Roger said with determination. "I'm an experienced treasure hunter, I'm sure I can help!"

"Don't forget me," Raditz said, following them. "I'll lead the way! I know the exact area where they grow in!"

"I wish you all good luck…" Dr. Luria said, turning to Clair, Farleen and Peppita. "I'm going to nurse him the best I can until they come back with metox… but since I'm the only person working here, I'd appreciate it if you guys can stay here to help… there's so many things we have to do..."

"No problem!" Farleen said. "Me and Lady Clair have some medical experience… we'll try to help as best as we can!"

"I'll do all I can!" Peppita said, running up to Dr. Lucia to help her with picking up things.

"Yes…Thank you very much for your help, Dr. Luria." Clair said in gratitude, with a courteous bow.

"My pleasure… and please, call me Simone." The doctor said. "We'll do as best as we can here. Meanwhile, let's all hope that they can come back with the Metox as quickly as possible…"

* * *

"There is absolutely nothing here!" Lancar yelled, as him, Raditz, Roger and Reen were all looking around for the Metox around the Mt. Metox summit area. "Are you sure it is supposed to be here somewhere, Raditz?" 

"It HAS to be here somewhere!" Raditz said, searching through the grass. "This is where it was the last time I saw it! And I've heard that these kinds of herbs can only grow here in this summit area… just keep looking around for that white herb I described to you!"

"I'll search in this area here!" Roger yelled out loud as he pointed to a slightly shaded, tall-grassed area. Roger went in to the area, and searched the grounds for a white, flower-like herb. After through scanning, he could not locate any Metox, but he did see a small treasure chest hidden away in a tall shrub.

"A treasure chest in a place like this?" Roger said to himself, running up to the treasure chest. With curiousity, he opened the chest, and discovered a large amount of money – 20,000 Fol to be precise – hidden inside.

"Whoa, jackpot!" Roger yelled out in joy at first, but then recalled the situation they were in at the moment "… there is no time for these things right now… we gotta save Albel." He closed the treasure chest, and resumed his search for the Metox.

"HEY!" Reen yelled out to everybody as she discovered something. "Everybody, come here! I think I found it!"

Everybody ran to where Reen was standing, and looked at what Reen had just discovered. They saw a white flower-like herb hidden off to the corner, shining brightly like a crystal under the sun.

"This is it!" Raditz yelled in relief. "That's the Metox! Great, we found it… let's hurry back to the Doctor's place!"

"Alright!" Lancar and Roger both yelled out. "Way to go!"

"This is great! Now we can cure Albel! Let's head back right away!" Reen said in excitement and relief as she picked the Metox from the ground, and turned back to leave. However, before she could head down the hill, she was interrupted by a quite, gentle voice coming from behind her.

"Hmm, so you must be the ones that defeated Shen just couple hours ago…" the voice said, as the figure revealed himself. It was a white-faced demon dressed entirely in black, walked forward with confidence, sporting a red cape and a long demon spear.

"Damn, another demon?" Raditz cursed as he turned to it, going into his fight stance. "This is not a good time for this…"

"It looks like you all have some of your own business to attend to…" the demon said as he glided ahead of where Reen was standing, blocking the path down the mountain. "But unfortunately for you, so do I. And I'm afraid mine will have to take precedence."

"What do you want, demon?" Lancar asked, pulling his fists back to go into his ready stance. "Get out of our way before we pound your face in."

"Yeah, get out of our way, wimp!" Roger said cockily, as he took out his double-chained axe. "Do ya wanna end up like your friend! If not, get lost, scumbag!"

"Hmph. How foolish. If you are thinking of escaping, that will be impossible." The demon commented. "My name's Jeiuce… and I have been ordered to terminate the likes of all you mortals, along with this Planet. Whatever you do, there is no escaping your fate. Give up now, mortals."

"Hah! That other friend of yours gave us same stupid speech!" Reen retorted, charging her orbs in energy. "And guess what ended up happening to HIM!"

"If you think I'll fall as pathetically as Shen did, you are quite mistaken." Jeiuce said, hovering slightly off the air as he charged his palm with dark energy. "There is no way I can be defeated by the likes of mortals such as yourselves. You could try me, if you'd like… I shall gladly show you the true meaning of futility."

"Kiyaaa! Get out of our way!" Raditz yelled as he charged towards Jeiuce with his sword held back. Raditz' quick, powerful swipe met with the end of Jeiuce's spear and the two pitted their weapons against each other with intense pressure. After 5 seconds or so of struggling, Jeiuce finally pushed his spear forward with force that was too much for Raditz. Raditz was sent flying afar from the force, and was sent crashing to the ground.

"Gah!" Raditz grunted, getting up quickly from the fall. "He's even stronger than the last guy!"

"Hmm, so perhaps they weren't completely bluffing about their skills after all." Jeiuce said, surprised at the amount of resistance Raditz put up the moment ago.

"TAKE THIS!" Lancar yelled as he attacked Jeiuce from his blind side. Jeiuce easily saw the blind side attack, and countered his punch by simply flipping over behind him and blasting him with his demon energy wave before he could react. Lancar was sent flying across the field, hitting a tree, wounded but not too seriously hurt.

"Ack…" Lancar muttered as he slowly got up. "This demon's quick, too…"

"FLARE ORB!" Reen attacked this time with herFlare Orb attack. The orbs became ignited with fire energy, and then flew right into Jeiuce engulfing him in a big explosion. However, the demon emerged out of the blast with only minimal of scratches.

"That wasn't too bad…" Jeiuce said as he coolly dusted himself off. "You would have hurt anybody else with that blast."

"Eat this, you scum!" Roger yelled as he threw one of his chained axes towards Jeiuce. Jeiuce avoided the axe pretty easily, but stepped right into the second axe that Roger happened to throw behind him. "Tricked ya!" Roger yelled, certain that he will get hit. However, the second axe only went through his decoy image that he had made of himself; Jeiuce had anticipated the move quite easily.

"A child's play." Jeiuce sneered. "I wouldn't even expect mortals to fall for such foolish tricks"

"Damn!" Roger cursed, surprised that his 'trick' didn't work.

Jeiuce slowly slid back, and gave the fighters a look that pretty much said that he was now through with playing. He held up his hand and charged it up with energy, releasing it a few seconds later towards the party while yelling "BLACK SABRE!" Lancar, Raditz and Roger all barely dodged the black disc attack, which then cut through a number of meter-thick trees that was in their path.

"Hmph. Faster than I expected." Jeiuce said, impressed. "Let's see if you mortals can avoid this," he said while charging up for another magic spell. He suddenly pointed towards where Reen was standing, while yelling "ERUPTION!". The ground suddenly erupted with fire as the resulting wall of fire slowly advanced towards Reen, who got completely trapped between the fire and the edge of the cliff. "AHHH!" Reen yelled as she jumped off from the cliff to avoid the wall of fire.

"REEN!" Raditz yelled in despair as she fell down the cliff. "No…."

"Jumping to one's own death…" Jeiuce commented. "I suppose it's a better way to die than being burned in fire. Either way, she's dead."

"WHY YOU!" Roger yelled, angry.

With Reen seemingly taken care of, Jeiuce turned to rest of the fighters to finish them off. However, Jeiuce had totally forgotten that Reen was a featherfolk. Reen slowly flied up from the cliff, and shot her orbs at unsuspecting Jeiuce while yelling "RAVEN ORB!" the orbs each made a direct hit against back of Jeiuce's head, sending him staggering forward.

"Bah!" Jeiuce cursed, surprised by the attack. "She was a real featherfolk?"

"One hundred percent!" Reen taunted him. "What, you thought these wings were just decorations?"

"Hiyaaa!" Raditz yelled as he charged towards Jeiuce again, this time taking repeated swings against Jeiuce. Jeiuce deflected all the attacks with his spear, but then had his hands full when Roger and Reen joined in on the attack as well. The attacks by the three eventually pushed Jeiuce all the way back, near to the edge of the cliff. "H… how could any mortals be strong enough to…?" Jeiuce asked himself, astonished at how humans had managed to push him all the way to the edge, literally.

"Time to say goodbye!" Raditz said as he stopped attacking, then flipped backwards to pull his sword back for an attack that would knock Jeiuce over the edge. "AIR SLASH!"

As he was cornered to the edge of the cliff, Jeiuce had no choice but to jump up high in the air to avoid the Air slash. However, as he jumped in the air, Lancar showed up out of nowhere above him. Lancar grabbed Jeiuce in mid air air, charged him in massive amounts of Qigong energy, then swung back and threw him hard down to the ground yelling "METEOR CRASH!" Jeiuce's body hit the ground with a devastating exploding impact, creating a small crater around the ground where he had been thrown down to and knocking him out.

"We got him!" Reen yelled.

"Ka…ka…kaaa…. How… dare you… mortals… hah… it…does not matter… you're… all dying… either way…" Jeiuce mumbled in pain.

"Why do you demons wish to kill us?" Raditz asked frankly as he stood tall over Jeiuce's fallen body. "You have your own world and we have ours. What good will it do if you kill us all?"

"… That… was what I was ordered… to do. The King says…all you mortals… are to die... It… does not… concern me…" Jeiuce said, struggling in pain and defeat.

"So you are just following your orders against your will? You mean that you are merely a puppet of this so-called King of yours, following his orders like a mindless drone? That's some integrity your race have." Raditz commented.

"…" Jeiuce stayed silent, thinking, but not knowing how to respond to that question.

"… Let's go guys." Raditz said as he turned away from Jeiuce. "Let's go back to Portmis."

"W…what?" Jeiuce blurted out, surprised that Raditz was going to leave without finishing him off.

"What?" Roger yelled, astonished. "You mean you're just going to let this demon live? You're gonna let him go?"

"We gotta hurry, Roger." Raditz replied. "We have to bring the Metox to the Doctor, quick. We can't waste any more time here…"

"He's right. We got more important things to worry about." Lancar agreed. "We need to get to Albel as soon as we can! He doesn't have much time left."

"Okay, let's run back, everyone!" Reen yelled, as everybody ran down the summit of Mt. Metox towards Portmis. Meanwhile, Jeiuce looked on in utter disbelief, struggling back to his feet, and still finding it hard to believe that his life was spared.

* * *

**Chapter 29: Memories and Dreams**

Meanwhile, back in the doctor's house, Albel's condition seemed to be getting worse by the minute. His breathing got heavier, with cold sweats running down the side of his pale white face. "Gahh….ahh…" Albel started moaning, twisting and turning his body violently with his face grimacing in extreme pain.

"Farleen, please pass me the tranquilizer! He's having spasms!" Simone said, panicking at the sight of Albel being tortured in pain. "His condition is worsening! In this pace, there won't be much time left…"

"Oh no… where are these guys? Please hurry!" Farleen pleaded as she passed the tranquilizing needle to Simone. Simone injected Albel with the tranquilzer, calming him down for few moments. However, his spasms resumed soon after with the tranquilizer seemingly not having any effect. "GAAAH… UAAAHHH! " Albel grunted in pain, tossing and turning.

"ALBEL!" Clair cried, as she held his hand tightly. "Hang in there! They'll be here any moment now! Please…please hang in there…"

"…" Farleen looked on with a look of sadness in her face, regretting all the bad things she said about Albel. Did Lady Clair truly care for Albel too, perhaps? She wondered.

"WE'RE HERE!" Reen yelled as her and others barged into the door, all out of breath from running back as fast as they can. "We got the Metox, doctor! How is he?"

"His condition is worsening… we better pray that this works…" Simone said, as she took the Metox from Reen to make the medicine. "I'll make the medicine right away… anybody that has experience in compounding, please help me so that we can make it faster…"

"Yes, ma'am!" Farleen said as her, Peppita and Clair followed her into the compounding room. After about 10 minutes, they finished making the medicine, running back to Albel's bed to give him the medicine.

"Pass the needle, please…" Simone said, as Lancar, Raditz and Roger held him down from his violent spasms. After a few seconds, Simone successfully injected the medicine into his body.

"Alright… all we have to do now is pray this works…" Simone said in worried yet serious tone. Albel violent spasms continued on for several minutes, before he started to calm down and fall into a deep sleep.

"It… it's working!" Simone announced, in relief. "His body is stabilizing! He's going to be alright!"

"A…Albel… I'm so glad." Clair said with slight tear in her eyes. "Simone… I don't know how to thank you… you saved his life…"

"I didn't do much… it's these guys who brought the Metox, you should thank them the most." Simone said, looking at Raditz, Reen, Lancar and Roger. "You guys should all get some rest for now… you all look really tired out. Don't worry, he will be fine, I'll take good care of him."

* * *

_Albel stepped into the dragon caves in the Airyglyph castle, excited yet nervous about the ceremony that was about to take place very soon. The dark cave was filled with the soldiers of the Dragon Brigade, with three captains of the three major brigades as well as the King Airyglyph XIII, also looking on._

"_Are you nervous, Albel?" Glou asked as he approached Albel. "Are you sure that you are ready for this ceremony? Remember, this will not be an easy task… you should not go through with this unless you are absolutely certain about your own abilities…"_

"_Hah, are you doubting me, father?" Young Albel said confidently. "It's only an air dragon… it doesn't stand a chance! I've been training the last 5 months for this ceremony… and I'm stronger than I've ever been. I have confidence in myself…I'll do this."_

"_Haha… no, no, Albel. I trust you. I trust your judgement completely." Glou said, smiling. "I just wanted to make sure."_

"_Master Albel will be fine, Captain." Vox said, who happened to be the second-in-command of the Dragon Brigade at that time. "He's young, strong, full of spirit and thirsty for action. He's got the right attitude… and his skills are certainly good enough."_

"_Yes, Vox, you are right." Glou said. "He's my son… I'm sure that he'll pass this ceremony with ease."_

"_He's already achieved the level of skill that is comparable to yourself, Glou." Woltar said. "As long as he has a right mind set, and confidence… he shouldn't have any problems." _

"_I've been training with Albel for a little while under his request…" Nevin, then-captain of the Black Brigade said. "And I've been having my hands full just holding him back… he's certainly strong enough for this ceremony… so there's no need to worry, Glou!"_

"_Thank you all… I have faith in him, as well." Glou said, turning to the King. "Your majesty, shall we begin?"_

"_Yes. Let's begin at once. Albel, you may step into the circle. Get ready for your ceremony." The King said._

"_Yes, your majesty!" Albel said, as he confidently stepped into the fighting circle that was surrounded by the soldiers of the dragon brigade._

"_Good luck, Master Albel." Vox said, right before he stepped out to the circle. "You can become the youngest warrior ever to succeed in this ceremony, at 16 years of age… it would surely be quite a feat."_

"_I don't need luck, Vox…" Albel grunted, as he walked straight by Vox without even looking at him. "I got the skills… and you're going to witness it, right now."_

"_Alright. Begin the Accession of the flames ceremony." The King said, as the soldiers opened the cage that contained a wild air dragon. However, as Albel got ready to fight the dragon, he was interrupted by a loud, echoing voice that rang throughout the cave._

"_How amusing…" The soft, but eerie voice said. "Yet such a pointless ritual seems appropriate for inferior beings like yourselves."_

"_W…what the hell is this?" Albel yelled. "Who is there?"_

"_That voice…" Glou said, trembling in surprise and fear. "It can't be…" _

"_What is the meaning of this?" The King yelled, confused._

_Out of nowhere, a demon with long white hair and pair of black wings appeared in front of Albel. _

"_Long time no see." The demon said as he walked towards Albel. "You most likely have no idea about who I am, but I certainly remember who you are…You've gotten much bigger."_

"_Bah… get out of my face, you maggot!" Albel said, unsheathing his katana. "Who the hell are you?"_

"_Wh… why are you here?" Glou yelled, as he ran up to confront the demon. "Why did you come to this world?"_

"_You know exactly why I came here. Don't play dumb with me, Glou." The demon said. "Hand me the orb."_

"_I…I have no idea what you're talking about!" Glou said, trembling with fear._

"_So, I take it that you didn't get the orb like we told you to…" The demon said. "How disappointing. I can't believe a mere mortal like yourself have decided betray us. Who do you think you are?" _

"_A…Albel… run away, now! Woltar, take his majesty to somewhere safe!" Glou said, as he scrambled back for his Crimson Scourage. "Vox! Nevin! Let's take care of this demon, now!"_

"_You broke the pact. You broke your promises. For that, now you will pay…" The demon said, as he flew up in the air. "You will pay with your life! Die, traitor!"_

"_Kiyaaa!" Nevin yelled as he charged at the demon with his large broadsword. The demon evaded his powerful swing, and made a swift, powerful thrust with his hand towards his midsection. _

"_AAAAAARRRGGG!" Nevin let out a blood-curdling scream as the demon's claws pierced right through his body, right out to his back. The demon pulled his hands back, dropping Nevin's lifeless corpse down on the ground._

"_Nevin! It can't be… Alright Vox, let's…Vox? Vox! Where are you?" Glou yelled as he searched for Vox, who was nowhere to be seen._

"_You were a failure, Glou. And your son has become a failure much like yourself." The demon said, as he flied up again, charging his hand with powerful fire energy. "I have no idea what Glou did to you, but nonetheless, you have now become useless. I shall end your meaningless life, right here, right now." _

"_No…NOOO!" Glou yelled, as he ran towards Albel._

"_DEMON SCORCHER!" The Demon yelled as he shot a massive blast of fire right at Albel. Albel was frozen, having nowhere to escape to. Right before he was hit head on, Glou saved him by jumping in to take the blast himself. A stray blast of flame hit Albel on his left arm, knocking him back._

"_F…father…" Albel muttered down on the ground, as he watched Glou burning slowly to death._

"_Know… who you really are Albel… look within… yourself…" Glou told his son with his last breath. "Find your own… truth…"_

* * *

"AHHHH!" Albel shouted as hewoke up suddenly from the bed, catching Simone, who was sitting next to him, by surprise. 

"A…are you ok?" Simone asked. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Gah…" Albel murmured, looking around to see where he was. He was in a small but cozy room; similar to the room he rested in at Arias earlier in his journey. He also noticed a middle-aged woman with long black hair, sitting by his bed.

"W… where am I?" Albel asked the woman who he has never seen before, yet had a familiar vibe.

"You're at Portmis right now…" Simone replied, as she introduced herself to Albel. "My name is Simone, a family doctor in this town. Reen and your friends brought you here because you were infected with a deadly virus…"

"A virus?" Albel asked, confused.

"Yes, a demon virus." Simone replied. "It was a close call. If your friends didn't bring that Metox then you would have died… they saved your life."

"What?" Albel yelled, in disbelief. Why? He asked himself. He's never been nice to them, and He had always ignored them… so why would they do something stupid like going out of their way to save my life? He thought.

"Anyways, I'm glad that you are conscious again… that's a good sign." Simone said, as she poured Albel a cup of water. "You're recovering pretty fast."

"…" Albel stayed silent as he looked at the woman again. He was absolutely sure that he's never seen her before, and he surely couldn't have - this was Roak after all, in another planet. However, she had this very comfortable, warm, caring vibe to her… most of all, she had this _maternal_ vibe emitting from her in which Albel couldn't comprehend.

"What's wrong?" Simone asked, noticing that Albel was staring at him. "Is there something on my face?"

"N…no." Albel said, "I just thought I might have seen you somewhere, that is all."

"Well, Reen and others told me that you're from another planet…" Simone said, while offering the cup of water to Albel. "I don't remember seeing you before, so I probably just look like somebody you have seen before."

"Right." Albel said, as he took a sip of water. "Where's everybody else?"

"It's 3am in the morning." Simone said. "They're all sleeping right now. They were all exhausted from yesterday."

"So why are you up?" Albel asked. "It's late at night. I'm fine now, you should go to sleep."

"I'm a doctor. It's my duty to look after my patients." Simone said, smiling, which somehow gave Albel a sense of warmth, comfort, and assurance. "Don't worry about me, I'm used to staying up late."

"Hmph…" Albel grunted as he noticed a small, framed picture standing on the table beside his bed. It was a family picture, in which it had a little kid with blue hair and tail, a big, muscular man with a beard and a headband, and Simone herself, all smiling and looking happy.

"Looks like you also have a family of your own." Albel said, picking up and looking at the picture. "You should be taking care of them instead, not staying up all night just to care for me. This is unnecessary."

"… That's my husband and my child…" Simone said, with a look of sadness in her face. "But they both died 8 years ago."

"…My apologies." Albel said, as he put the picture back down. "What happened to them, was it an accident?"

"They… mysterious disappeared 8 years ago…" Simone said, still looking sad. "Then I got a news that said both were found dead in a place called Parj temple. To this day, they still don't know how it happened."

"PARJ TEMPLE?" Albel yelled. "That's where we are supposed to go… where is this place? Tell us."

"I'm not sure. They said that it was somewhere in the Astral continent." Simone said. "But please, do not go there… it's known as a really dangerous place… I don't want to see you or anybody else get hurt… I don't want there to be any more harm… my husband and child was enough."

"This is something that we must do." Albel said. "I'm sorry about your husband and kid, but we are all on a mission. We're not going to stop after coming this far."

"But…" Simone muttered.

"We are all strong, the monsters on this planet are no match for us. We'll be fine." Albel said, as he got up. "You need your sleep. Go back to bed, I'm fine now."

"If you are sure that you're ok…" Simone said. "Then I guess I should go to sleep… there is a long work day ahead."

"I'm fine. Just go." Albel insisted.

"Alright. Very well." Simone said, making her way out the door. "Let me know if you happen to start feeling sick again… good night… and nice to meet you, Albel… Albel's your name, right?"

"That's right." Albel answered.

"I see…" Simone said, pausing in thought for a while, then turning to bow to Albel. "Have a good night."

"…Good night." Albel replied as Simone walked out of the room.

* * *

**Chapter 30: Comrades**

When Albel opened his eyes once again, it was bright early morning. The clock beside him read "7:21 A.M", and chirping of the birds could be heard from outside. Albel got up from his bed, and walked up to the window to look at the view of the town. As he opened the window, he greeted with fresh-breezy morning sea air and bright warm sunlight from the sky. The streets were empty, except for few morning walkers as well as couple early-bird merchants who were getting ready to set up their shop for the day. It was a truly beautiful sight, a sight in which even Albel somehow got immersed into. This was a typical city that someone like Clair would like, Albel thought.

Clair… Albel was thinking as he recalled back to the time at the Aquatic Gardens of Surferio when she put herself in harm's way just to heal her. Why did she help him then?

Furthermore, why did everybody else help him this time around? Albel wondered. He didn't need them, so why did they act like they need _him_?

As Albel got immersed into these thoughts, somebody slowly opened the door from behind him. "Albel?" Clair asked, coming into the room. "Thank god you're alright! How are you feeling?"

"…I'm fine." Albel said. "I'm fully recovered and ready to go. So as soon as everybody wakes up, let's head for Astral to meet their King."

"I'm glad you're all right…" Clair said in relief. "We were all worried sick yesterday. I thought maybe… you weren't going to recover… But it's so good to see that you've recovered."

"Hmph. You fools did it again." Albel said. "Why did you all waste your own time just to save me? You could have all went to Astral and Parj Temple by now… Maybe even the Daemoneum. You didn't have to do this… all it did was slow down the mission even more."

"Albel, don't say that!" Clair said adamantly. "We're all your comrades, and we can't just leave you behind when your life is in danger! We all care for you… I… care for you…"

"You're being silly once again, as usual." Albel said, turning back. "Don't do anything stupid like this again. We have a mission and if I happen to become an obstacle in completing this mission, then just leave me behind. There are much more important things to take care of."

"No, Albel." Clair said. "We won't do that. None of us would do that. We are all in this mission together, and I can't just leave a comrade in danger just to complete a mission. You and I both started this mission, Albel. And we are both _finishing_ it together. We will ALL finish it together."

"…" Albel didn't say anything for a while, and then turned around to speak again to Clair. "Enough of this. Either way, we're leaving as soon as all the fools wake up from their sleep. We're heading right to Astral City. Got that?"

"…Yes, we will." Clair said weakly, little hurt that Albel decided to ignore what she had said.

Meanwhile, both Farleen and Reen were looking through the tiny opening in the door, watching what was transpiring between Albel and Clair.

"So Clair really… I can't believe it…" Reen whispered to Farleen, stunned and in deep thought. "I thought it was always the other way around… that Albel liked Clair… but it looks like she really cares for him, too."

"Yeah, I don't know why she would fall for him… but…" Farleen said. "She really cares for him. As much as I hate to admit it, she does."

"…" Reen stayed silent, in thought.

"So what are you going to do? Weren't we going to interrupt them?" Farleen asked.

"No… let's leave them alone…" Reen said, walking away with slightly bitter but true smile in her face. "It looks like I'm the underdog in this competition here… heh… but even if that's so, I want this to be fair and square… If I am to win Albel's heart over, that's the only way I want it to happen…so I don't want to interfere anymore…"

"…" Farleen looked to Reen, smiling and thinking that she was really a pure hearted girl, after all.

Few hours later, everybody stood outside the door of Simone's house, getting ready to leave. Simone came out as well, to see them goodbye.

"Let's all go, then." Raditz said. "We'll take the ship to Otanim, get to Tartaroy then take the ferry from there to Astral City."

"Hold on for a minute…" Lancar said. "Roger is not here yet… I wonder where he is..."

Just as Lancar finished his sentence, Roger ran in from the town entrance, bumping into Raditz slightly. "Sorry I'm late guys… heh… you weren't going to leave without me, were ya?"

"Umm, where did you just come from?" Peppita asked.

"Well… I just went… for a morning jog in the mountains! Yeah… that's right, I love the fresh morning air, hehe…" Roger replied, little hesitant in his answer. "Anyways, we're gonna leave now since Albel's all better, right? Then let's get going!"

"You guys make sure you all come back safely…" Simone said. "Parj temple will be really dangerous. Please don't get hurt. I'll be praying for all of you..."

"Heehee, don't worry about it, doctor!" Reen said, as she gave Simone a hug. "We're going to be alright! Thanks again for taking care of Albel!"

"Oh, that's right, we should pay you…" Raditz said, reaching back for his wallet. "I don't have too much money left, but it's better than nothing…"

"No… really… it's alright…" Simone said. "I appreciate the thought, but I really don't feel that I should…"

"Don't worry about it, ma'am… we just want to thank you… please accept our… WHAAAA?" Raditz yelled suddenly as he looked into his wallet in surprise. His wallet was filled with money; 20,000 Fol to be exact.

"Hmph, spoiled kid." Albel sneered, "There is no need to show off your money like that, rich fool. We already know."

"But… this isn't my…" Raditz murmured, stunned by the surprise. "…Anyways, here's 10,000 Fol then, ma'am. I hope that's enough… Thank you so much for all your help."

"You really shouldn't… this is too much…" Simone said as she reluctantly accepted the money that Raditz more or less forcibly handed over to her. "Th…thank you."

"You deserve it." Lancar said. "We should be paying you more, really."

"Alright, let's head to the port." Albel said, as he walked towards the port. However, before leaving, Albel turned back to Simone, to say one more thing. "…And thank you."

"Did… did Albel just thank somebody?" Peppita asked in surprise. "That's sooooo unlike Albel!"

"Haha…" Clair laughed softly, smiling and glad that Albel gave his gratitude to Simone.

'_Damn… why did I just say that?_' Albel wondered to himself, realizing that Peppita was right; it was really not like him to say such things. But Albel didn't really have any regrets deep inside. He honestly felt that it had to be said. It would have tortured him NOT to.

"Alright, let's go before we miss the ship!" Raditz said, running down to the ship ticket booth. Meanwhile, he was still wondering about one thing… where did all that money in his wallet come from?

* * *

Within half a day, the group made their way across the sea back to Otanim, walked back to Tartaroy to take the ferry that goes to Astral City. Astral city was indeed a very big place, being the Planetary Capital of Roak. The buildings were built in much more sophisticated and technologically advanced way, much like how a city on Earth might look like. Even so, the same big old medieval-style castle still stood behind all the tall buildings. 

"Whoa, this city is more developed than any of the cities we've been to so far…" Lancar said. "This is more like it… I'm starting to feel more at home now, hahaha."

"Well, Astral is the Planetary Capital, so it naturally has to be bit more advanced… after all, we're still part of the Federation." Raditz said. "This is the only city in the planet that is really advanced like other Federation cities, though. This is only like the third time I've come here..."

"Alright, let's go in." Albel said as he walked towards the Castle doors. They went through the reception hall, requesting an audience with the King. Several hours later, they were granted the audience, and made their way into the throne room.

"Welcome, my citizens. I am King Warren XXI." The King said as everybody bowed down to him to show their respects. "You may rise up now. What can I do for you all?"

"It's a honour to meet you, your majesty." Lancar spoke. "I'm Lancar Douglas, Federation Personnel ID #22764. I've come from Planet Klaus to request an investigation."

"From Planet Klaus, you say?" The King said. "I must say that I'm very surprised… From the news I've heard, your planet is in a fierce battle against a hoard of demons that have appeared, as well as many other planets. Is this really a good time for this investigation? You must all have your own planets to worry about."

"Yes, your majesty. This is exactly why we have come here." Lancar said. "We're here to get rid of those demons that are infesting in various planets around the universe."

"I see… but I fail to see why you had to come to Roak…" The King said speculatively. "So far, we've had reports of demons, but it has been minor, and nothing that we can't handle."

"Your majesty, we have traced the source of all the demons in this universe, and have realized that they all coming from one source… the Daemoneum." Raditz said. "We need to gain access to their dimension so that we can get rid of them once and for all. And we believe that our planet holds the key for accessing their dimension."

"Our planet… is the key you say? To enter the Daemoneum? That means you must need…" the King started asking.

"Yes, sire. We need the 'Eye of the Truth'." Lancar replied "We have come here for permission to enter the place called Parj Temple, which we believe holds this artifact."

"I see… I must say that I am surprised." The King said. "Not too many people remember our war against the demons from 700 years ago… as a matter of fact, I'm surprised that you even knew about the Existence of the Parj Temple…"

"Yes, your majesty. This land is in danger of repeating that war from 700 years ago. This is why we have to enter the Daemoneum as fast as we can." Raditz said. "Please, sire. I humbly request your permission for entering the Parj Temple."

"…Parj Temple has been sealed for the last 600 years. It's considered to be an extremely dangerous place. Cursed even. Nobody has gone into that temple and come out alive." The King said. "And this 'Eye of the Truth' that you speak of… is only from the legend… we do not know if such OPA even really exist at all."

"But it really exists, your majesty!" Raditz said. "My ancestors were directly involved in the demon war from 700 years ago! I can confirm it from the memoirs I've read!"

"But even so…" The King continued. "I am not sure if this is the smart thing to do for our planet at the moment. Even if this 'Eye of the Truth' really open the gate to the Daemoneum, you are risking our land from being invaded by the demons at the same time. Most of all, I believe that none of you have proved your worth of entering such a place."

"But we ARE strong enough, your majesty!" Roger said. "2 years ago, we even saved the univ…"

"Roger! Shhh!" Lancar stopped him.

"You do all look like capable fighters…" The King said. "But I cannot take the great risk of opening the portal to the Daemoneum unless I can be absolutely certain of your abilities."

As Albel got up to say something to the King, he was interrupted by one of King's servants rushing in the door. The servant ran in, out of breath, and looked to be in panic.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" The servant yelled. "We've just received news that Tartaroy and Portmis are under attack by hoards of demons!"

"WHAT?" The King yelled, shocked. "Have the defense units been dispatched?"

"Yes sire, but…huff" The servant struggled, out of breath. "The hoards of demons are much stronger than we expected! And there are way too many of them! Also, we are lacking personnel because most of our defense units have been dispatched to assist other Federation planets… Sire, it's a matter of time before Tartaroy and Portmis falls!"

"Tartaroy? That's where my Father, mother, and everybody else is performing! No! I have to save them!" Peppita yelled, concerned about the safety of her Troupe members.

"N…no! Mother!" Reen yelled in panic, realizing that her mother may be in danger. "She could be in danger! I'm going to go save her!"

_Portmis?_ Albel wondered… _the same city where Simone treated him? Simone is going to be in danger?_

"I'm coming with you to Portmis." Albel said to Reen adamantly. "Let's get going."

"But Peppita needs to go to Tartaroy!" Roger yelled. "But they're being attacked at the same time as Portmis? Damn!"

"Then… how about we split up?" Farleen suggested. "Four of us can go to Tartaroy, and the other half can go help out at Portmis!"

"Good idea, Farleen." Clair said. "Farleen and I will go with Reen and Albel to Portmis. Raditz, Lancar, Roger, please help out Peppita at Tartaroy. Let's all leave immediately."

"Please, hold on for a second, warriors." The King said, stopping everybody from leaving. "Since this is an urgent situation, I shall grant you permission to use the emergency transporters to both cities. This way, you won't have to ship all the way back."

"Thank you, your majesty!" Raditz showed his gratitude, surprised but very grateful.

"My pleasure. I should thank you instead for helping us out in the time of need." The King said. "Good luck to you all."

"Transporters are on the second floor." The servant said. "I'll show you the way. This way, please."

"Let's go!" Albel yelled as him, Clair, Reen and Farleen took the transporter to Portmis, while Raditz, Lancar, Peppita, and Roger took the transporter to Tartaroy.


	10. Part 10: Chapters 31, 32, 33

**Chapter 31: The War Begins**

Peppita, Raditz, Lancar, and Roger stepped on the emergency transporter located at Astral Castle, they were sent instantly to the city hall located in Tartaroy. As soon as they emerged out of the transporter, an injured soldier approached them so that he could show them the way.

"The… demons… there are… too many of them! Please… help… the exit is over to… the right…" The soldier struggled, holding his wound. "Please… hurry…"

"Let's hurry!" Raditz yelled. "It looks like they've been causing some havoc already!"

The group followed Raditz's lead, taking the exit to the right and coming out of the city hall into the main square of the town. The town square was already filled with fire and smoke, filled with sounds of people screaming in panic and pain as they struggled and ran away from a mass hoard of Demons.

"Shit, let's stop them before they do even more damage!" Lancar yelled as he charged towards a group of demons. He took care of the two that were closest to him by delivering a swift double kick, then jumped up to demolish several more of them by using his Hammer of Might attack.

"What?" One demon yelled as he looked back to Lancar and the rest running at them. "There are mortals here that can actually stand up to us?"

"HURRICANE AXE!" Roger yelled, as he spun himself around in a circle furiously with his two axes stretched out across the length of the field. The demons that were unfortunate enough to stand in the way of its path was helplessly cut into pieces.

"HIYAA!" Raditz shouted as he went through a group of monsters with numerous rapid sword slashes. The demons were cut down before they could even attempt to dodge or counter his slashes.

"HI-YA!" Peppita yelled as she sent out an invisible Instanto Blast towards another group of demons. The impact from the blast knocked the demons away, sent flying into other demons that happened to stand in the way.

"Huff… there are way too many…" Lancar said, out of breath, as he tore his way through another group of demons. "Where the hell did they come from? huff, there's no end to 'em!"

"Gah!" Roger yelped as he was eventually hit from the back by one of the demons. "They're… attacking from everywhere! I'm…surrounded!"

"FIRE…BOLT!" One demon yelled as a ball of fire homed in towards Peppita, who only noticed the attack coming the last minute. "Ahhh!" Peppita screamed in fear as she covered her face with her forearm helplessly.

"AIR SLASH!" Raditz yelled, as he neutralized the firebolt that was about to hit Peppita with his wind blast just in time. "Shoot, we're outnumbered!"

"We're going to tire out before we can kill them all… gahh!" Lancar grunted as he was interrupted with a nasty claw swipe from a demon.

"Alright, everybody, take cover!" Raditz yelled, as he all of a sudden jumped back, charging his sword in massive amount of energy. "I'm going to toast 'em all at once!"

Raditz's sword lighted up brightly with the intense amount of energy channeled into it. After few seconds, Raditz took a giant swing with his sword, spinning and releasing the energy that was channeled into his sword while yelling "FLASH WHIRL!". Countless numbers of fireballs were sent scattering all over the battlefield, toasting every single demon on the field with remarkable precision.

"Wow! That was great, Raditz!" Roger yelled in triumph, praising Raditz's attack. "You got 'em all!"

"…Huff thanks…" Raditz replied with a smile, little out of breath from using a strong technique.

"Let's go into the Arena!" Peppita yelled, as she ran in front of everybody towards the Arena. "Father, Mother, and everybody else from the Troupe are in there!"

"I hope they're all right… let's go!" Lancar said as him, Raditz, and Roger followed her into the Arena.

The Arena was partially destroyed already just like many of the other buildings in town. As the group ran in, they saw a group of 6 demons that were getting ready to blast through the dressing room door. "There are more mortals hiding in here!" one demon yelled. "Let's kill every single one of them!"

"Not so fast!" Peppita yelled from behind the demons. "You're not hurting my family! You'll have to go through us first!"

"Heh, more mortals made it in here?" Another demon sneered. "Great, instead of hiding, they came right to us. Saves us the trouble. My brothers, let's kill them!"

"STOP, NOW!" A gigantic figure with a deep voice yelled, as he kicked through the dressing room door out to the main hallway. "You evil demon, don't lay a finger on our missy! Ursus shall punish you!"

"URSUS!" Peppita yelled with a look of relief. "You're all safe! I'm so glad!"

"Please stay back, missy." Ursus said, as he got ready to fight the six demons in front of him. "This place very dangerous. Please take cover, Ursus can take care of the demons!"

"Heh, pretty big for a mortal… but nonetheless, he's still a mortal!" A demon yelled as he charged towards Ursus. "DIE!"

The demon threw a deadly claw swipe right at Ursus, but Ursus simply grabbed his arm with his huge hands. He then picked up the demon by his arm with least amount of effort, swinging him back and pounding him straight down to the ground. He picked the demon up again from the destroyed ground, pounding him down to the ground again several times like a rag doll. He then tossed the lifeless corpse of the demon at another demon, sending it flying back along with the corpse.

"W…what?" One of the four remaining demons yelled, stunned at the level of Ursus' power. "What kind of freak is this? Take this, mortal! EARTH PRESS!"

The demon created a large rock boulder right above where Ursus was standing, sending it straight down in an attempt to crush him. However, Ursus simply raised both his hands, catching the boulder like a little toy, and then tossing it away to the side.

"H…HOW CAN IT BE THAT STRONG?" the demon yelled in fear.

"Alright, no more playing! Time to kill all of you!" Ursus yelled, as he raised both of his hands behind his head to get ready for an attack of his own. He then pounded the ground in front of him with great power, causing the surface to erupt. "TEAR INTO PIECES, DEMONS!" Ursus' Ripper Blast attack smashed all of the remaining demons that were standing in front of him with the rocks emerging from the ground from the impact.

"Yaaaaay! Thank you, Ursus!" Peppita said as she ran towards Ursus to hug him. "Let that be a message to all the demons out there - Don't ever mess with us, the Rossetti Troupe!"

"Wow…" Lancar muttered in amazement. "So that's the true power of a Rondo Lukian… I've heard that they even surpass us Klausians in terms of raw physical power, but still… I'm impressed!"

"Is everybody all right?" Peppita asked Ursus.

"Yes, missy. Everybody safe and sound." Ursus replied in his deep voice. "Don't worry, Ursus will protect them."

"I think that's about all of them!" Raditz said. "It's a good thing that we came here to help before it got worse!"

"I hope others are okay…" Roger said worrily. "If the situation in Portmis is just as bad as it was here, then… err… I hope they got there before it was to late!"

"Let's hope so…" Raditz said, as he waved everybody out of the building. "Let's go back to Astral for now to see what the situation is."

"Alright," Peppita said, as she turned to Ursus before leaving. "Ursus, please take good care of the family… I'll come back, I promise!"

"Yes, missy. Ursus will take good care of them." Ursus assured. "Please be careful."

* * *

"I have to go look for my mother!" Reen yelled as she ran out of the transporter room in Moore Castle in Portmis. "I hope she's still safe…" 

"Let's hope that everybody ran away to a safe place…" Clair said, running along with Reen. "Simone… please be safe…"

_Please be safe_… Albel thought of the same thing to himself as well. At that moment, Albel's mind became puzzled; he started wondering why he even wished for _anybody _to be safe at all. _Why are you even concerned about the fates of these insignificant townspeople, or about some insignificant woman that had no importance to him whatsoever? _He wondered. This was unlike him, _so_ unlike him, that he was absolutely disgusted in knowing that he was even thinking of those things. He didn't care for anyone. There was no point for him to volunteer in doing this.

_So why are you doing this?_

Albel couldn't answer. _Who cares, it doesn't matter_, he told himself. He was already here, and it was too late to turn back.

As Albel and others ran out of the Moore Castle, they stared into a scene that could only be described as total devastation. Every house was destroyed, on fire, and many lifeless bodies were scattered across the streets.

"OH MY GOD…" Reen cried as she stared down at the frightening scenery in utter disbelief. "MOTHER!"

_Mother?_

_Simone_! Albel suddenly thought to himself as he started getting worried. Why was he even worrying about her? He wondered for a split second. _Who cares why? I have to find Simone. Now. _Albel ran off to Simone's house to look for her, ahead of everybody else.

"KIYAAAA!" Albel yelled as he ran through a hoard of demons with his katana swinging wildly. Any demon that happened to be in his way to Simone's house was brutally and mercilessly cut down by Albel's devastating slashes.

"Albel?" Clair called for Albel as she started chasing after him. "Please wait for us!"

"I'm going to go check for my mother!" Reen said. "I'll meet up with you guys after!"

"Let me clear the way!" Farleen said, as she charged up for a spell. "EXPLOSION!" her devastating Explosion spell incinerated all the demons in the way, clearing a path for Albel, Clair and Reen to go through.

Albel and Clair ran towards Simone's house to see a fallen woman by the doorsteps. To everyone's dismay, it was indeed Simone; mortally wounded from the demon attacks.

"No….NO!" Albel yelled in panic as he picked Simone up in his arms. "Simone! Get up! Speak!"

"Al….bel… Clair…" Simone spoke faintly. "Run… Save… your…selv…es."

"SIMONE!" Clair yelled her name in concern. "Let me cast a healing… AHHH!" As Clair was getting ready to cast her healing spell, she was knocked away by a demon from behind.

"Heh… there are few mortals left here that still needs to die." The demon said. "Make sure they all suffer a slow, painful death!"

"HOW DARE YOU…GWAAAAAAA!" Albel screamed as something snapped in his head. He swung his katana back, then slashed forward repeatedly in mad rage. "AIR SLASH OF FURY!" Countless number of Air Slashes blew away all the demons that were standing in front of him.

"Hiyaa!" Clair yelled as she slashed and cut her way through the demons with her twin daggers. After cutting through several demons, she found herself surrounded by dozens of demons. Clair then charged her body in wind energy for few seconds, releasing it while yelling "WHIRLWIND!" The raging tornado surrounding Clair's body blasted away all of the demons that were standing close to her, setting her free from the trap.

"There's… too many of them!" Farleen said, barely fighting off the demons that were attacking her with her lower-class spells. "They're not giving me a chance to cast stronger spells! They won't stop attacking!"

As Albel, Clair, and Farleen were struggling with the hoard of demons, Reen rushed to her house to discover her mom fallen down nearby. "MOTHER!" Reen yelled in panic. "ANSWER ME!"

"Reen…" Reen's mother struggled to answer. "You have to run… these demons… are too strong…"

"No… I can't forgive these monsters! They destroyed my hometown, killed the townspeople and my friends… they're destroying everything that I have ever cared for!" Reen shouted in anger. "And they hurt you, mother! I can't… I CAN'T FORGIVE THEM!"

Reen suddenly ran out of the house, confronting the big hoard of demons. The demons were destroying the remaining houses and killing anyone that tried to run away.

"STOP IT!" Reen said in rage as her eyes started sparkling brightly. "STOP IT NOW!"

Reen suddenly flied slightly off the air, and charged her orbs in mass amount of energy. She then put the orbs together into one gigantic ball of light, shooting it high up in the air.

"HAIL ORB!" Reen yelled, as hundreds of energy orbs showered down from the big energy ball towards all the demons like a furious hailstorm. The showering orbs ripped through all the demons, killing every single one of them on the field in an instant.

"Ahh…" Reen yelped softly as she fainted from overexerting her power.

"Reen! You okay?" Farleen yelled as she ran over to Reen in concern.

Meanwhile, Albel and Clair rushed over to Simone. Simone was almost lifeless, her face pale white and not even showing any pain.

"Get up! GET UP!" Albel yelled frantically. "Don't die on me!"

"Let me try a healing spell!" Clair said. "HEALING!" Her healing spell could not do much as Simone's wound was too great to seal.

"My healing spell is too weak…" Clair said in despair. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"There….s… nothing… you can…do…" Simone struggled to say. "It's… too late… I've…been…infected…with…virus…as well…"

"No!" Albel yelled. "It's not too late! Let's get her back to the Castle!"

"Albel… I just… want… to… ask…" Simone asked faintly, her life draining away as she spoke each word. "a… favour…"

"Huh?" Albel wondered. '_She's dying… why am I feeling this way? Why do I feel like… I'm losing… someone important? She's…'_

"If… my… son… happens… to… be…still…alive…" Simone spoke so weakly now that it was hard to hear her. "Please… give… him this…"

Simone gave something to Albel with her last ounce of strength. It was a tiny music box, which Albel seemed to remember very well. As a matter of fact, he was SURE that he's seen it and heard it before. Somewhere.

"This is…!" Albel asked.

"He…had...the..same…name…as you…" Simone spoke softly as her eyes slowly closed. "…Al…bel…"

As soon as Simone finished her sentence, her head dropped back, and her body just gave in. There was no motion, no sound, no nothing. Only thing that could be heard was the bittersweet melody from the music box. Her life was now gone.

"NO!" Clair cried, as her head sank with despair and sadness.

"This sound…" Albel said, his voice now choking and his body trembling. "I've… heard this before… where… how… why… WHY?"

Right at this moment, Albel felt something that he hadn't ever felt in his entire life. Even when his father died, he did not feel this way. But there was something about this moment. He was sad. He was mad at himself. He was mad at himself for not being able to do anything, for being helpless. He was mad at himself for failing to protect her. _He was mad at himself for not knowing what was going on inside. _At this point, Albel couldn't take it anymore. He had to let it out.

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Albel yelled loudly, letting out all his frustration, sadness, and anger that was bottled up inside. The sound echoed throughout the now-deathly quiet town, filling the air along with the fire and smoke.

* * *

**Chapter 32: King's Conference**

The group sat in the Conference room in the Astral Castle, everyone stunned and deathly silent after hearing the news from Albel, Clair, and Farleen.

"Simone…" Raditz muttered. "I can't believe it…"

"I'm…so sorry…" Peppita apologized, her eyes swelling up in tears. "I can't believe we lost her…"

"Those bastards…" Lancar swore, then calming himself down to ask Clair a question. "Clair, how is Reen doing?"

"She's exausted from her attack… she'll be fine. She just needs to rest for a little while…" Clair said quietly. "Her mother was badly hurt, but her injuries weren't life threatening. She'll be fine as well, thankfully."

"Portmis… is gone…" Raditz said, with his fists clenched. "Those demons… I can't forgive them…"

"We're sorry…" Farleen apologized. "We weren't strong enough to save the city."

"Don't blame yourself, Farleen." Lancar said. "You guys did the best you can, and you did eventually clear them all out. You saved the rest of the Moore continent from those demons for now. It's not your fault that you got there too late."

"Yeah, good job Clair! Farleen! Albel!" Roger tried to cheer them up, as he noticed Albel with his head down, elbows on the table, and hands covering his face. "Albel?"

_Why… why am I feeling this?_ Albel asked himself. _Is this sadness? Is this what grief truly is? If so, why am I feeling this grief?_ Albel then slowly thought about Simone's last words and her music box. _Her son had the same name as me? How was that possible?_ Albel had seen the picture of her husband and son before, and neither of them looked familiar to Albel at all. His son did not look like him. He didn't have blue hair… he didn't even have a tail. Most importantly of all_, he wasn't from this planet._ So how can he remember the tune to the music box so clearly? Why did he feel so attached to Simone? Too many questions were left unanswered. This was all getting too confusing.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting." King Warren XIII apologized as he entered the conference room with the two security personnel. "Let's begin the meeting."

The King sat down at the Royal seat located at the top end of the conference table. After a little moment of silence, The King started speaking.

"First of all, I have to thank you warriors from repelling the demon attacks in Tartaroy and Portmis." The King said with sincere gratitude. "Even though Portmis has been unfortunately wiped out, by defeating the demons, you have temporarily ceased the attack on the Moore and Astral Continent. I have no idea how the situation would be right now if you didn't take care of them. I can't thank you enough for helping us in the time of need."

"Our pleasure, your majesty." Raditz replied. "It is our mission to defeat these demons… and most of all, I would never hesitate in helping to defend my own planet. I would give my life to protect it."

"I am very glad to hear such noble intentions." The King said. "We need more heroes like you in this world… in this universe."

"It's true, your majesty." Lancar said. "We just wanted to help. Even though this may not be our world, we still want to protect it as if it was our own."

"And we must thank you…" The King said, pausing and thinking for a while before speaking again. "So, where do you intend to go from here, great warriors?"

"We would like to visit the Parj Temple, if we may, your majesty." Raditz humbly asked. "Now that the invasion of the demons are indeed getting serious in our world, I believe that we need to enter the Daemoneum as fast as we can and defeat them, before they cause even more harm."

"And hence, you need the _'Eye of the Truth'_…" The King said. "At first, I did think that it would be foolish to let unproven group of people to enter such a potentially dangerous place. However, now that the invasion of Roak by the demons is indeed the reality, I feel that there is no other choice. Moreover, all of you have now proven your credibility and prowess from your heroics in Tartaroy and Portmis. You have proven it more than enough."

"You mean...!" Raditz asked.

"Yes, I shall grant you the access to the Parj Temple." The King said. "You must first go west from Tartaroy then head north from the fork. Do not worry about the guards. You have my full permission."

"Thank you, your majesty!" Clair thanked him as she bowed.

Right at that moment, a soldier barged into the Conference room, in panic and urgency.

"Your Majesty!" The soldier reported. "More demons have been sighted heading towards Ionis, Edcart, and Van City! They have already destroyed Dulce, and now heading east towards Sylvalant! Our forces from other planets still need another day or two to return… at this pace, we're…we're doomed, sire!"

"Ahh…" The King sighed, turning back to Raditz and the rest. "I am sorry, but it looks like you will all have to begin your mission right away. From the look of things… we may not have much time left."

"...You heard the King." Albel said as he finally broke his silence, getting up to leave. "We leave for Parj Temple, right now."

"Albel…" Clair said, with a look of concern on her face. "Yes. Let's begin our mission at once."

"Let's go!" Raditz said, as he and others got up to leave on their quest to Parj Temple.

"Good luck to you all, noble warriors." The King said.

* * *

As the group walked towards the transporter room to Tartaroy, they were interrupted a voice coming from behind them. "HEY! Stop! Wait for me…" 

"Reen?" Raditz asked as Reen caught up with the group.

"Huff... You guys weren't going to just leave me behind, were you?" Reen asked, catching her breath. "Cuz you're not going anywhere without me!"

"But Reen, you still look really weak! You haven't recovered fully yet…" Clair said in concern. "And what about your mother?"

"Heh, I'm feeling just fine and dandy. And my mother's going to be alright, the doctors said." Reen said. "Don't try to ditch me now! Things have gotten personal now… I'm going to track those demons down and help you guys save this planet, and the universe!"

"Alright. Let's go together then, Reen." Raditz said with a smile. "That's all the reason you need. We'll all go to the Daemoneum and save our universe from those demons."

"Yeah, let's go, Raditz!" Reen said. "Let's save our universe!"

* * *

The road from Tartaroy to Parj Temple wasn't particularly far, but it still gave the group a lot of trouble as the road had been blocked off for the last 600 or so years, turning the road into a wild, dangerous, pathless wooded area. The fact that the demons were now looming around the area didn't really help the cause, either. However, every demon they encountered was taken care of by the group without much problem. Eventually, the group reached the entrance to Parj Temple. 

"This must be it." Albel said. "But how come there is nothing behind this gate? All it leads to is some pointless rooms!"

"The King told me that there is other entrances to the temple." Raditz said. "Let's go back out and look for another entrance… it's probably hidden, somewhere."

After searching the outside of the Temple for a while, Roger discovered a huge boulder that seemed to be blocking the pathway into something. "Hey guys, I think we can go in from behind this rock!" Roger said. "It's kind of big, though. Can we move it?"

"Hey, have you forgotten what I did at the Mt. Metox cave?" Lancar asked, cracking his knuckles. "Leave it all to me!" Lancar stepped back couple meters, and then charged towards the boulder shoulder first with great force. The boulder shattered in pieces, revealing the secret entrance to the Parj Temple.

"Looks like this is the REAL entrance…" Raditz said. "Let's go in."

* * *

**Chapter 33: Inside Parj Temple**

As the group went inside the temple, they noticed that the place had a very eerie and mysterious vibe to it. They also noticed many huge floating translucent orbs scattered throughout the room.

"Avoid those orbs, and head forward." Albel said. "We're going through that door up ahead."

After about 20 minutes, the group went through numerous doors and many different rooms. However, it seemed that in the end, they ended up at the same room with all the big orbs scattered around.

"What the hell?" Albel cursed. "This is the same bloody room as before…"

"My scanner is telling me there's no other paths leading from here…" Lancar said, looking into his quad scanner. "We've went through all the paths already… they all lead right back to this room."

"Damn, we come all this way and now we're trapped?" Raditz complained. "Should we go back out?"

"Wait!" Farleen said. "Look at that orb over there… all the orbs are orange, except for that one over there… that's the only blue orb out of the whole bunch… maybe that's the clue?"

"Maybe we should go into it!" Reen suggested. "It could lead us somewhere!"

"Are you sure?" Peppita asked. "But we're not sure about where that thing could take us…"

"We're not going to get anything done by just standing around and searching like idiots." Albel said, walking towards the orb. "Let's just see where this thing takes us. We'll go from there."

"Honestly, there isn't much else we can do." Lancar agreed. "We've already entered all the rooms… this might be the only way through, who knows."

"Let's go ahead then." Clair said, walking along with Albel towards the blue orb.

As everybody stepped into the huge blue orb, it disappeared with a flash, transporting the group to the hidden room within the Temple. They arrived in a large, empty room, with only one big door located in the north.

"The _'Eye of the Truth'_ is probably behind that door." Albel said. "Brace yourselves. We might have to fight."

"Heh, you most certainly will." A mysterious voice came out from thin air, just as another orb appeared in the room. A gigantic red demon stepped out from the orb, showing himself to the group.

"You must be the mortals that decimated our forces in those two cities." The red demon said, holding out his pitchfork. "Your level of power is quite fascinating… it's surely beyond anything that regular mortals can achieve. You surely did a number on our forces back there… but that's as far as you go. I shall now end your lives."

"Heh, another maggot." Albel sneered as he went into his ready stance. "How many of you weak fools must I beat into submission before you finally realize it's no use?"

"Get our of our way, demon!" Raditz said. "Or you'll have the fun of ending up just like your friends!"

"Overconfidence is such a typical mortal trait." The Red Demon said as he powered himself up in bright aura. "And as always, the trait that leads to the inevitable downfall of your kind. I shall reward you justifiably for your foolish acts."

"KIYAA!" Albel yelled as he charged towards the Red Demon. "DIE, YOU DEMON SCUM!"

Albel swung his katana repeatedly at the big Red Demon, but for his humongous size, he was very fast. It evaded every single slash from Albel without a problem.

"Hmph. I'll get some of you useless punks out of the way first, then have my fun with the rest." The Red Demon said, as he spun his pitchfork rapidly in a circle. "DAZER BLAST!"

The Red Demon's Dazer Blast was too fast for most of the group to avoid. While Raditz, Farleen and Albel just got out of its way, it hit everybody else, paralyzing them with the beam.

"I… can't… move!" Lancar said, as he tried to struggle out from his paralysis state.

"My body won't budge!" Roger yelled, twitching helplessly in his futile attempt to move.

"Ah… how can this be?" Clair said, as the nerves in her body went into sleep.

"Hehe… now I'll play with you three that were lucky enough to escape." The Red Demon said, swinging back his pitchfork. "Die, insolent mortals!"

Albel just barely avoided the pitchfork thrust from the Red Demon, by quickly leaping to the side. As the Red Demon followed him, Raditz came out of nowhere from behind the Demon, yelling "TWIN SLASH!" His slashes were only met with some sort of barrier, however, deflecting them back.

"Shoot!" Raditz cursed. "This guy has a barrier, too?"

"My shield is inpenetratable, mortals." The Red Demon said proudly. "You can try to break it if you like, but that would be impossible with your pathetic level of power."

"ENERGY ARROW!" Farleen yelled as numerous Energy Arrows homed in on the Devil, exploding against his barrier. Unfortunately, it didn't even do a single scratch.

"Heh. It's as if you're trying to break a rock with an egg." The Devil said cockily. "It's so amusing just to watch."

Suddenly, the devil disappeared, reappearing in front of Albel, Farleen, and Raditz in that order to blow them away with his energy ball attack. All three were thrown down to the ground, in tremendous pain.

"Gya…" Raditz grunted in pain, getting up slowly. "Too…strong…"

"We…we can't break that barrier…" Farleen said, kneeling on the ground. "We're not strong enough…"

"Giving up already fools?" Albel yelled. "I'll tell you right now, that maggot won't be seeing the end of me anytime soon!"

"Let's all attack him together at once!" Raditz said. "I think I can break that barrier. When I do, Farleen can lock him down, then Albel, you can deliver the finishing blow!"

"Sure, but…" Farleen asked. "Are you sure you can break that barrier?"

"I'm gonna hit it with all I got!" Raditz said, as he jumped high in the air to charge himself in blue energy. "Get ready!"

"Heh, this should be interesting. The fools don't learn." The Red Demon sneered.

"DRAGON HOWL!" Raditz yelled as the blue energy around his body formed into a shape of a large dragon. Raditz then dove right onto the Red Demon in his dragon form, slowly burning through his energy barrier.

"WHAT? How can this be?" The Red Demon yelled in disbelief. "It's impossible for any mortal to break my…"

"Here's my chance!" Farleen yelled as she charged up a quick spell to lock down the Red Demon. "THUNDER FLARE!" A large ball of electricity surrounded the Demon, shocking it and stunning it in one place. "Gwa…aaa...aaaa...aaa!" The demon yelled, spazzing out in shock.

"DIE!" Albel yelled, as he got ready to set up the final blow. Albel held his katana high above his head with both of his hands, charging it with massive amount of spirit energy. Albel swung his katana down at blinding speed yelling "CRESCENT MOON FLASH!" A large, sharp, crescent moon-shaped energy wave shot out of his katana, going right through the Red Demon like hot knife through butter to slice him in half.

"We got it!" Farleen yelled in triumph of victory.

"Huff... some impressive stuff as usual…Albel…" Raditz said as he kneeled down, tired out from his attack.

As soon as the Red Demon died, the paralysis effect inflicted upon the other group members disappeared. Lancar and Roger helped Raditz back up to his feet, and everybody looked ahead to the big door ahead.

"Let's go in." Albel said, walking through the door to claim the 'Eye of the Truth'

* * *

The group entered the large, ornate and fancy inner chamber, impressed that a place like this happened to exist in the temple. Everybody searched the room for the 'Eye of the Truth', all to no avail. 

"T…there is nothing?" Albel yelled in disgust. "So this stupid legend was false after all?"

"_Quite the contrary, visitor."_ A gentle voice replied as everybody looked around to search for the source of the voice. "_What you are looking for does indeed exist. As a matter of fact, you might discover more than what you were looking for."_

"Who… who are you?" Raditz asked in bewilderment, as three spirits, one green, one red, and one yellow, materialized in front of the large statue that was located in the center of the room.

"_It has been over 700 years since the mortals last visited this place…" _The Red spirit said. "_And they are still as ill mannered as ever. Leave our sacred place at once."_

"_You are being too harsh, my friend. You are acting just as rudely yourself." _The Green Spirit retorted, chiding the Red Spirit for being too harsh.

"_Allow us to introduce ourselves." _The Yellow Spirit said. "_We are known as the Sacred Runes of Roak, the ancient spirits that grant this land with the blessing of heraldric energy."_

"I've… I've heard of the legend!" Raditz said. "I thought it was only a made-up story, but it's really true!"

"_I see that you are a descendent of those who came here over 700 years ago, young one." _The Green Spirit said. _"You carry the same passion and the spirit as he did back then."_

"_He's not the only one it seems." _The Yellow Spirit said. _"That Featherfolk woman over there is also a direct descendent of another one of those who came here back at that time."_

"Me?" Reen asked, surprised. "Could it be, Joshua the great?"

"_The rest of you I see are not of this world." _The Green Spirit continued. _"For what purpose do you come here for, mortals?"_

"Your greatness, we are here to acquire the 'Eye of the Truth' from you, a device that is needed in order to enter the Daemoneum." Clair replied humbly. "We were hoping that your greatness would grant it to us, so that we can enter the world of the demons and eliminate this new threat to our own dimension."

"_Just as I thought. It's exactly like 700 years ago." _The red spirit sneered. _"You mortals are foolish for letting your own history repeat itself…"_

"_I see that your intentions are pure, and that you are worthy of being entrusted with the said device. Unfortunately, we do not posess the 'Eye of the Truth'. We did not have it 700 years ago, and we still do not." _The Green Spirit said. _"However, we do know where it is located."_

"Now where might that be?" Albel asked.

"_After the last war between humans and the demons ended 700 years ago, your ancestors hid the 'Eye of the Truth' within deep confinements of a cave in hopes that it would never be discovered again." _The Yellow Spirit said. "_The object that you are looking for is hidden in the Sylvalant Caves. That is as much as we can tell you."_

"Sylvalant Caves?" Raditz asked. "So we'll find it for sure there? Perfect! We can find the 'Eye of the Truth' from the caves, and head directly to the Demon Island to enter the Daemoneum!"

"Thank you, your greatness." Clair expressed her gratitude with a bow. "We shall find this object and defeat the demons to ensure the safety of our dimension."

"Let's go to this place then." Albel said, turning around to go back. "There's not much time to lose."

"_I am afraid that the young man is right." _The Yellow Spirit said. _"The existence of this planet, the other planets, and both the human and the demon dimensions will be threatened if are unsuccessful in your attempt. Good luck to you, mortals."_

"What?" Lancar asked. Both human and demon dimensions?

"Alright, thank you very much, your greatness… we shall be on our way at once!" Raditz expressed his gratitude, as every body walked out of the room to transport out of the temple via the blue orb. As they group left, the spirits talked amongst themselves.

"_That boy…" _The Red Spirit said._ "There is something strange about that boy."_

"_Indeed, I see that I wasn't the only one that noticed." _The Green Spirit said._ "Which world could he possibly be of? It is quite mysterious, indeed."_

"_Could it be the act of the forbidden mirror?" _The Yellow Spirit asked.

"_That is quite possible, yet cannot be proven. It is quite astonishing that even we can't truly understand this phenomenon" _The Green Spirit replied_. "I supposed all we can do is to keep a watchful eye on them and find out the truth."_

"_Yes, as they are this dimension's only hope." _The Red Spirit said.

"_True indeed." _The Yellow Spirit agreed.


	11. Part 11: Chapters 34, 35, 36

**Chapter 34: Sylvalant Ruins**

"Sylvalant Caves, did you say…" The King asked the group who had come back to Astral for another audience. "So that's what the spirits at the Parj Temple told you all?"

"Yes, your majesty." Raditz replied. "The ancient spirits told us that the 'Eye of the Truth' is hidden in Sylvalant Caves. We were hoping that your majesty would give us more information, since we do not know its whereabouts."

"Sylvalant caves… they must have meant the ancient Sylvalant Ruins." The King said. "It is inside a cave located to the east of Sylvalant. Just like the Parj Temple, its access has been prohibited for the last 700 years. The legends say that many demonic spirits have taken residence there over the years."

"Demonic spirits…" Reen said. "Sounds dangerous…"

"Well, that hasn't stopped us so far." Raditz said, cracking his knuckles. "Let's go to this place and get the 'Eye of the Truth'! Your majesty, we humbly ask of your permission once again to access this place."

"You have my full permission, brave warriors." The King said. "However, traveling directly to Sylvalant Ruins at the moment from here would be very dangerous. The enemy forces have already taken Dulce, and are heading east towards Sylvalant. Heading through the war zone at the moment would be very dangerous. Therefore, I shall also grant you the permission to use the transporter that goes directly to Sylvalant. You should be safe to travel east from there, as we have the enemy forces contained at the moment at the western front of the city."

"Thank you kindly, your majesty." Clair expressed her gratitude with a bow.

"Good luck to you all, once again." The King said, as he dismissed the party to the Transporter room.

* * *

The group transported directly to Sylvalant, and made their way towards the east to find the Sylvalant Caves. While walking, Clair noticed a sad yet determined look on Albel's face. _'Albel… I've never seen him react to someone's death in the way he did… has he changed? Or was Simone more important to him for somehow? Would he react in a same way if one of us died? If I died?'_

"Albel…" Clair asked quietly. "You said you remembered the sound from the music box clearly from your childhood… and she said her son had the same name… do you think…"

"Nonsense!" Albel replied with disgust, walking ahead. "It can't be anything other than some stupid coincidence. You saw the picture… that kid isn't me. That person wasn't my father. I'm born and raised in Kirlsa, and I've never heard of this planet before now. It's all nonsense."

"But if that's the case…" Clair asked carefully. "You said that you feel too familiar with this planet… and it seemed like Simone was someone really special to you… how can that…"

"This universe is a bigger place than I have ever imagined." Albel said, as he walked even faster ahead. "So it's not surprising that there are some similarities between the worlds. There's plenty of room for some freak coincidences to occur. There is no evidence… there is nothing. End of story."

"… I guess you're right." Clair agreed, though still skeptical inside.

* * *

The group didn't have to walk too far from Sylvalant to find the Ruins. It was a fairly large cave entrance that wasn't even blocked by a boulder or anything of that sort; it seemed that they only assigned guards to the entrance, and the guards that were supposed to be on duty were obviously attending to more critical situation back at the battle front. 

"Well, at least this time I won't have to destroy any big rocks or anything… saves me trouble." Lancar said. "Let's go in."

For a supposedly dangerous place, the interiors of the Sylvalant Ruins did not give the same vibe. It was obviously a little dark and chilly, as how a normal cave should be, but there were plenty of torches as well as shining rocks and minerals that lighted up the path leading in.

"This is a pretty cool cave actually, don't you think?" Roger asked everyone. "The walls are kinda bluish and it's more spacious than I expected… it's pretty bright, too. I wonder what they used this place for."

"I heard this was formerly an underground base for soldiers back in the days of the first Demon War…" Raditz said. "But that was like a thousand years ago… it certainly doesn't look that old."

As the group continued on down the ruins, Reen suddenly heard a voice talking to her mind.

'_You must leave, my child'_. A gentle, womanly voice told Reen. '_You do not understand its dire consequences. Please leave immediately'_.

"Huh?" Reen yelled, startled, looking around. "What was that?"

"Whaaa? Reen, you scared me!" Farleen complained, shocked from Reen suddenly yelling out. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought I heard something…" Reen said, still startled and confused. "… Never mind. Let's keep going… sorry everyone."

"Heehee, are you afraid of ghosts or something, Reen?" Peppita joked. "If you're scared, don't worry, you can go back! Don't force yourself…"

"Errrrr… Peppita! It's nothing like that!" Reen yelled, little flustered. "I'm not afraid of any ghosts! I just thought I heard something! Geez…"

Actually, Reen had lied. She indeed WAS afraid of ghosts, ever since she was a little kid. Just a little bit. However, that was beside the point… _she could swear that she had just heard a voice…_

After going down several flights of stairs, the group arrived at a large 4-way intersection. Not knowing where to go, Lancar took out his quad scanner in order to search for an area with high energy reaction.

"There is a tremendous energy reaction coming from the area little south from here." Lancar said. "This is… an OPA-class energy level… about magnitude 2.5… this has to be it. Let's take that door to the south."

As the party stepped towards the south door, they were suddenly interrupted by dozens of spirits that appeared out of nowhere, blocking their path. They each had an eerie blue aura around their translucent body, which looked somewhat like the demons.

"Bah, what the hell?" Albel cursed. "Is this what they meant by the 'demonic spirits'?"

"I bet." Raditz said, unsheathing his newly tempered aura blade. "Looks like they don't want us to pass."

"There's… way too many of them, don't you think?" Farleen asked in panic. She was indeed right. The dozens of demon ghosts in front of them suddenly multiplied into many more, eventually filling the whole cave with the ghosts surrounding the party.

"Hey, this isn't fair!" Roger yelled, with the whole party closing in together as the ghosts surrounding them started slowly creeping forward. "This is too much!"

With the party seemingly in unprecedented danger, a sudden blue flash filled the entire cave brightly. Everybody shut their eyes in reaction to the blinding light, opening their eyes again couple seconds later. To their surprise, every single one of the ghosts in the cave had disappeared.

"Wh…what?" Albel asked, confused. "Where the hell did those ghosts all go?"

"Farleen, did you cast a new spell?" Clair asked Farleen.

"No, Lady Clair… I didn't do anything…" Farleen replied. "How did they all disappear like that?"

"Either way, I'm glad!" Reen said. "Now we can go on ahead!"

At that moment, Reen heard the same voices in her head that she heard before, speaking to her again.

'_I do not want you and your friends harmed, my child…'_ The voice said. _'So please… please leave immediately.'_

"HUH?" Reen yelled, startled yet again. "But why?"

"Reen, what is it?" Peppita asked, annoyed. "This is the second time you reacted suddenly like that!"

"The voice…" Reen said. "The voice told me to leave… for us to leave this cave immediately…"

"Whaa? What voice?" Farleen asked, puzzled.

"Whatever your so-called voice said, I'm not listening to it." Albel said, walking south towards the door. "We're not turning back just because some imaginary voices in your head told us to."

"But… Albel!" Reen pleaded. "I really did hear a voice…"

What was that voice? Reen asked herself. It certainly didn't too hostile… it had a voice of a gentle woman, and it really sounded like an honest plead. It had also called her 'my child'… what was that supposed to mean?

* * *

The group went through the southern door, and then went through couple more doors leading west to arrive in a big room with many torches around the walls. In the center of the room, there was a big ice block; a large chunk of ice with something encased inside. 

"An ice statue?" Peppita asked, surprised. "And there's a person trapped inside of it!"

Everybody stepped near the ice statue to see what exactly was encased inside the huge ice block. It was a body of a young woman with wings; a Featherfolk.

"She's a featherfolk!" Reen yelled. "How did she get trapped inside this ice? I feel so sorry for her!"

"There's no time to worry over her." Albel said. "We got more important things to do."

"The energy reaction is coming from the room in the back over there." Lancar said. "That must be the 'Eye of the Truth'… let's go get it."

"_No… I cannot let you have the 'Eye of the Truth'."_ A gentle, womanly voice said out of nowhere. _"You people do not understand the risk involved."_

"Where the hell did that voice come from?" Albel yelled, startled.

"That's…that's the same voice I've heard before!" Reen said. "It kept telling us to leave!"

"_By using the 'Eye of the Truth', you would be putting our world under a great threat."_ The voice continued. _"Opening the portal to the Daemoneum… the dimension of the demons… means that you will be invoking another war in our world. It will only result in destruction and lives lost. I cannot allow this."_

"The voice… it's… coming from that ice statue!" Roger said.

"But demons are already out there invading us!" Raditz pleaded. "They are already causing so much destruction in our world… we have to stop them as soon as we can… that is why we must retrieve the 'Eye of the Truth' as our ancestors did 700 years ago!"

"…_Is that so?" _The Featherfolk inside the ice block asked. _"My name is Elise, the guardian of the sacred artifact known as the 'Eye of the Truth'. I have stayed here for over 700 years in order to protect this device from the reaches of evil and greed, to prevent the war from ever happening again. So you say that the demons have already began the invasion of our world?"_

"That's right!" Reen replied. "And we must stop them! That's why we need the 'Eye of the Truth'!"

"_You are certainly one of my direct descendents… I feel my blood flowing within you, my child"_ Elise said. _"I feel that you are indeed telling the truth, but I must now test you."_

"Test us?" Clair asked.

"_I must now test you all to see if you are worthy enough to be in possession of the 'Eye of the Truth'."_ Elise said, suddenly breaking out of the ice block, and floating up in the air. _"Unless I can see that you're strong enough to defeat the demons, opening up the gates to the Daemoneum may potentially speed up the destruction of our world, instead."_

"But we don't want to fight!" Reen yelled. "I don't want us to fight each other!"

"_Do not be afraid, my child."_ Elise said. _"If you truly want to save the world… you must show me your strength."_

"Gladly." Albel said, unsheathing his Katana. "I didn't really want to kill you, but if that's what we must do, then I guess I won't have any regrets."

"_Please do not hold back."_ Elise said, charging up her palm with blue energy. _"As I will also come at you with all I have."_

Elise suddenly released the energy in her hand, shooting out numerous blasts of blue laser beams in front of her. Everybody avoided the beam just in time, as the impact from the laser shook the entire cave violently.

"GYAAA!" Raditz yelled as he jumped in the air to deliver his twin slash attack. However, Elise simply extended her palm out in front of her, deflecting the attack and knocking Raditz back with her blue shield aura.

"PALM OF DESTRUCTION!" Albel yelled, as he fired a powerful energy wave from his hand towards hovering Elise. Elise simply stood where she was, and swiped at the energy ball to send it back to the source. Albel dove away from the spectacular explosion, dodging his own attack just barely.

Suddenly, a powerful blue aura completely surrounded Elise as she charged up for her most powerful attack. She finally released her gathered energy in one brilliant blue-white flash, yelling "NIBELUNG VALESTI!" The powerful wave of energy completely decimated every attack that was coming her way, blasting everybody back to the wall and down.

"G…gaahh…" Albel moaned. "P…powerful…"

"_It seems that my powers have diminished greatly over the last 700 years…"_ Elise commented, charging herself up in blue energy once again. _"But this next attack will be more powerful than before… it will surely destroy all of you. Please… before its too late… show me your worth."_

"I'm…sorry…" Reen said faintly as she charged her orbs in shining white energy, with her eyes sparkling brightly. "I didn't want to do this…"

"NIBELUNG…" Elise began to yell, as she got ready to release even more powerful burst of energy towards everybody. Right before Elise released her attack, Reen rose up in the air, then shot her charged energy orbs towards Elise yelling "HOLY ORB!" With a bright, spectacular white flash and sparkle, the holy energy from the orbs blasted Elise off the air, knocking her down to the ground.

"_I…Impressive…"_ Elise commented, as she slowly struggled back up. _"You have certainly surpassed my own powers… my child." _

"Ahh…" Reen yelped as she dropped to the ground, drained of all her energy.

"Do you want more?" Albel asked as he got back up to fight. "I'll gladly beat you down again if you wish."

"_No… you have certainly all proven your… worth."_ Elise said, struggling for her breath _"It was a short time… but I saw the potential within all of you…I can see that you are all certainly capable of defeating the demons…"_

"So you're letting us through?" Lancar asked. "It's behind that door over there, right?"

"_Yes."_ Elise confirmed. _"It's behind the door. Please use it wisely."_

"So… mother Elise…" Reen asked weakly, struggling back up to her feet with help from Farleen and Raditz. "How did you… end up here…? Why… were you… enclosed in that ice…? In this cave…"

"_My story no longer matters. If you are able to defeat the demons, then you will be able to free everybody else who happened to be the victim of the demon's vile acts…for those who share the same misfortunes as I have in the past." _Elise said, pointing to Albel._ "Like that young man over there…"_

"What?" Albel asked, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"_That is all…" _Elise said, slowly fading out like a ghost. _"Please save this planet… and the universe from the demons…brave warriors…"_

With those last words, Elise faded out and disappeared completely before everyone's eyes.

"She had… a very sad look in her eyes…" Reen said. "I wonder what had happened to her in the past…"

"…Enough of that." Albel said, still wondering about what Elise had said. "Let's go. 'Eye of the Truth' is right there."

The group walked in the back room, where they saw an altar with a glowing redorb on top of it. Albel went over to it, and picked it up.

"We finally got it." Albel said. "The 'Eye of the Truth'."

"This thing has the same properties as those relics we got back in Elicoor…" Lancar said, analyzing the device with his quad scanner. "If we use this, we'll be able to reach the Daemoneum for sure."

"Let's go back to Sylvalant, then head to that Island where I first met you guys!" Raditz said. "According to the legend, we can only open the gate to the Daemoneum from there!"

"Alright, let's move!" Albel said, as everybody ran back up towards the exit.

* * *

**Chapter 35: Enemy from the past**

As soon as the group got out of the Sylvalant Ruins, they headed back to Sylvalant Port and took the Ferry to the Southeast "Demon" Island. Once they arrived, everybody stepped out to the sandy beaches of the Island in determination, bracing themselves for entering the Daemoneum.

"This place…" Clair said, reminiscing. "It wasn't too long ago when we first appeared on this Island… but now that we're back, it certainly feels like it has been forever…"

"Yeah…" Roger agreed. "A lot of things have happened since then…"

"Raditz…" Clair said, turning to Raditz. "I just want to thank you for helping us the whole way through. Without you, I have no idea where we would be right now."

"Heh, don't sweat it…" Raditz replied, a little embarrassed. "I had a blast traveling with you guys all the way through… It was my pleasure. If anything, I want to thank you guys. I've learned so many things about myself during this whole journey… about my own abilities, about my family history, and all that good stuff! Thanks…"

"Raditz, you know what? Technically, you have accomplished what you were set out to do… to lead us back here…" Farleen asked Raditz. "Now we're going to go into the Daemoneum… are you sure you want to come with us? I mean, it's going to be really dangerous in there, and you might never even make it back home… this was really our mission, and not you guys… I feel bad for having you and Reen getting caught up in our mission…"

"Whaaaa? Farleen! How can you say that?" Reen yelled back. "It's not 'your' mission anymore, guys! This involves us now too!"

"She's right!" Raditz agreed. "I want to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors and help you guys defeat these demons… and save our universe. Come on, you guys didn't think that we were just going to leave now, did ya?"

"Haha… they're right." Lancar said. "We can't just leave them behind now. They've come too far already… and besides, they're our friends. You can't just leave friends behind."

"Let them come." Albel said. "Though I didn't think they would be of much use at first, they've become quite an asset in our battles… we might need all the help we can get."

"Umm, thanks I guess… haha…" Raditz said, scratching his head.

"Yeah, you guys can't just kick us out now!" Reen said, wrapping her arm around Albel's. "Besides, I don't want to leave Albel I'm coming with him, heehee."

"Beh…" Albel said shrugging her off, though he really didn't seem to mind Reen's affection for him that much anymore.

"That's right… we will all go together." Clair said. "And we will all fight together… until the end."

"Everyone get ready." Albel said, taking out the 'Eye of the Truth' from his pocket. "We're entering the Daemoneum, right now. Brace yourselves."

With a bright flash of red light, the 'Eye of the Truth' created a large, circular black portal in front of the group. Without hesitation, everybody jumped into the portal, transporting to the Daemoneum.

* * *

"CAPTAIN!" One of the crewmembers of the New Diplo yelled. "We have finally picked them up! We've picked up their signal!" 

"What?" Cliff asked, running up to the computer screen. "Where? Where are they located?"

"They're on… Planet Roak, Captain." The crewmember said.

"Roak? Why the hell would they be at _that_ planet all of a sudden?" Cliff asked. "Alright… track down their coordinates and establish communication with Lancar, pronto!"

"Cliff?" Sophia called, running in from another room upon hearing about the news. "We have found them? Thank god they're alright!"

"Yeah, good thing." Cliff said. "They're on Planet Roak, for some reason, though… I have no idea how they traveled couple hundred light years from Elicoor to there in such a short time, but… we'll ask them about that after."

"They're on… Roak?" Sophia asked, being quite familiar with the planet. It was the same planet that her and Fayt went to two years ago in order to reunite with her parents and Aunt Ryoko.

"Get them on line!" Cliff yelled. "Lancar, do you read me?"

"…" There was no response from Lancar's communicator. Only static.

"Captain, we cannot establish connection… and we've…we've lost their coordinates?" one crewmember yelled, dumbfounded. "We can't find them!… it's as if… they've just disappeared…"

"What? DAMN!" Cliff cursed. "We lost their coordinates? How can that be possible? Continue the search!"

* * *

Through the circular black portal, the group arrived back at the Daemoneum. It was much of the same from what they had seen in their previous trip; a floating continent in the middle of space-like atmosphere, filled with thunder and lightning. It was all new to Raditz, Reen, and Peppita of course. 

"This…this is the Daemoneum?" Raditz asked, amazed. "We're finally here… it's nothing like what I had expected."

"You can say that again…" Reen agreed. "It's nothing like that they talk about in the books and stuff…"

"AHHH!" Peppita yelled, startled by the loud thunder. "This place… is creeping me out…"

"Yeah, this is exactly where we were last time." Lancar said, walking ahead. "No mistake about it. We're at the Daemoneum."

"We're heading to that building called the 'Time and Space Lab'." Albel said. "That's where their base is."

"Yeah, that's what it said in the memoirs, too…" Raditz confirmed. "The home of the Demon King…the Time and Space Lab…"

"It is that big Green building you see over there in the far end." Clair said, pointing towards the big tower-like structure looming over the continent. "Let's go."

As everybody marched forward, Albel's mind started glitching out once again, just like the last time he was here.

_'You've now signed your soul… ther… is no…back… out. Get… the… orb in the new… worl... DA…DAD! NOOO! If you want… to liv… retri… orb'_

"Gah!" Albel blurted, holding his head in pain. "What's… this…"

At that moment, something flashed in Albel's mind. _He had been here before_. He realized. No, he wasn't thinking about the last time where they met Romero; he had been here once LONG before that time. He could swear that he had.

"Albel?" Clair asked in concern. "What's going on?"

"I've… been here…?" Albel muttered, his mind getting hazier with more he tried to remember.

Suddenly, a group of demons appeared from behind the rocks to surround them. "Mortals? How the hell did they enter our dimension?" One demon questioned, ordering the other to attack. "Attack the intruders! Kill the Mortals!"

The group entered a fight against dozens of demons. Although the demons were all strong in their own right, the power and skill of Albel, Clair and the rest were too much for them to handle. With each slash, each punch, each blow, and each spell, the demons fell one by one, succumbing meekly to the group's powerful attacks.

"Huff… that's all of them." Albel said, gasping for breath.

"We won… somehow…" Peppita said, tired out.

"The lab is right around the corner!" Raditz said, running ahead towards the entrance to the Time and Space Lab. "Let's enter that place quickly before more demons show up!"

Right before the group got to the doorsteps of the lab entrance, a vile, chilling wind interrupted them from advancing forward. "Heh… it's the same mortals from before… I knew they would be back…"

_WHAT?_ Albel asked himself. _That voice…_ He knew that voice. The soft, eerie voice. He had heard it before.

"I have no idea how you were all able to access our dimension again…" The voice said, as he slowly materialized in front of the group to show himself; a demon with long white hair, pair of black wings, dressed in a black robe. "But it looks like you are all still driven by your foolish bravery. Would you all like to die for good this time, mortals? Let me assure you… unlike Romero, I won't let you go so easily. I, Saphiro, will make sure your lives all end right here, right now."

"THAT VOICE!" Albel yelled. "YOU!"

"You're…" Saphiro said, thinking carefully, and finally remembering. "Of course… how can I forget? _The_ _failure_. I'm surprised that you're still alive."

"Huh? _The Failure_…?" Clair asked, puzzled. "Albel… you've…seen him before?"

"It is indeed pretty surprising that you managed to live…" Saphiro continued. "Too bad your father weren't as lucky as you were … hahahaha…"

"YOU…YOU SCUM!" Albel yelled in rage, unsheathing his Katana. "I've been waiting for this! I'm going to slash you up into little pieces… you disgusting maggot! I shall finally have my revenge!"

"You surely talk big as you did then. And you look just as helpless, as well… hehe. Typical of a defective project." Saphiro laughed. "I'll make sure I burn off more than your arm this time around."

"Hah! You think you can take us all on, Demon?" Raditz asked, as everybody went into their ready stance to fight. "You have no chance!"

"No, let me correct you… it is _you_ who have no chance." Saphiro said, as he flied slightly off into the air. "You are mere mortals, and I have been granted the 'gift of god'. You cannot hurt me."

"WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT, MAGGOT!" Albel yelled, lunging forward at Saphiro in rage. "GWAAAAA! TAKE THIS!"

Albel leaped high in the air with his katana swung back over his head to deliver his Head Splitter attack. However, Albel's powerful slash went right through Saphiro, as if he wasn't even there.

"What?" Albel yelled, puzzled.

"HIYAAA!" Reen and Peppita both yelled at the same time as they delivered their Raven Orb and Instanto Blast attacks at the same time. The orb and the blast shot directly at Saphiro, somehow going right through him without any impact.

"ACROBAT LOCUS!" Lancar jumped at Saphiro to deliver flurry of powerful punches and kicks onto his body. His efforts were also futile, however; he was only punching and kicking through air. "Shit!" Lancar cursed.

"H…how?" Roger asked as his axe shot had also gone right through Saphiro without any effect. "It's just like last time… we can't hit him!"

"Farleen!" Clair yelled, as she charged up for her most powerful symbology spell. "Let's hit it with a power spell at the same time!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Farleen yelled back, as she also began her spellcasting.

"Go ahead." Saphiro said confidently, not budging. "Waste your energy, fools".

"SOUTHERN CROSS!" Clair yelled. Her Southern Cross spell created a cross-shaped light pattern on the ground as five stars charged in mass energy fell down from the sky towards Saphiro.

"STAR FLARE!" Farleen yelled as a gigantic wave of bright star energy showered down towards Saphiro, combining with the Southern Cross spell to create a devastating massive explosion on the ground.

"We got it!" Lancar yelled in triumph. "There's no way he could have survived that blast!"

However, when the smokes cleared, Saphiro walked out without a single scratch done to him, to the despair of everybody in the group.

"I really enjoy watching your desperate and futile attempts, I have to admit." Saphiro. "The looks on all your faces are truly priceless."

"GWAAA! TAKE THIS!" Raditz yelled as he jumped into the air to surround himself in a blue, dragon-shaped aura. He dove in towards Saphiro covered in tremendous wave of energy, yelling "DRAGON HOWL!" However, just like with anything else, Raditz's technique effortlessly went through Saphiro without having any effect.

"You mortals are really all quite stupid." Saphiro sneered with a cocky grin on his face. "Such useless attacks… why even bother?"

"H…how?" Raditz asked, completely out of energy. "How can everything… just go… right through…"

"It has been fun watching, but I must end your lives now, as promised." Saphiro announced, charging his hands with mysterious force of gravity energy. "TRACTOR BEAM!" The gravity energy lifted everybody high up in the air against their own will, flipping them upside down and driving them all down head first right into the ground. Peppita, Reen, Roger, and Farleen were all knocked out from the impact of the fall.

"Gya…aa" Albel muttered as him, Lancar, Raditz and Clair slowly got back up to their feet, not ready to give up.

"Haven't had enough?" Saphiro asked, charging his body in lightning energy. "LIGHTNING FEATHER!" The massive Lightning Feather attack shocked and burned anyone who was left standing, knocking them back down on the ground, defeated.

"S…shit…" Albel cursed faintly. "How can we…"

"Now I shall blow you all away into nothing." Saphiro said, as he flied high up in the air, with dark feathers from his wings flying everywhere around him. A symbol flashed on his forehead, gathering massive amount of energy in front of it. "ETHEREAL…"

Right before Saphiro could deliver his Ethereal Blast attack, Lancar suddenly heard a distorted voice coming from his communicator. "What… the…" Lancar muttered in disbelief. Somebody was contacting them.

_"L…LANCAR!…C…can you hear me?… This… this is Sophia! Please answer me, PLEASE! ARE YOU THERE?"_

"That voice!" Saphiro yelled, canceling his attack and listening up. "Could that be?"

"S…Sophia?" Lancar replied weakly into his communicator. "How can you… reach us here? Please… beam us up… as fast as you can…"

_"LANCAR? What's going on there?"_ Cliff asked over the communicator. "_Where are you guys?"_

"In…the…Daemoneum…" Lancar replied. "Please… you have to transport us now… or else…"

"Heh… great. How convenient." Saphiro sneered. "Take all the time you need. Run away. Don't worry, I won't kill you."

_What the hell?_ Albel wondered, right before passing out. _Why the hell would he let everyone go?_

_"Coordinates confirmed…what? It's not even in numbers or letters? But we have it nonetheless… alright, transport them up to the Diplo, now!" _Cliff was heard saying over the communicator. With a blue flash, everybody disappeared into thin air.

"Hmph, I shall finish off you mortals a little later." Saphiro said, not looking particularly disappointed by the fact that they've escaped; in fact, he looked more pleased than anything. "There are more important tasks at hand."

"Heh, hypocrite. You just let them escape as well." A voice sneered at Saphiro, as Romero appeared in front of him. "You have some explaining to do."

"Those mortals can be finished off at any time. They pose no threat to us." Saphiro said. "I've found something more important. I've discovered the target. The fools revealed themselves to us."

"The target?" Romero asked, surprised. "So we finally found her."

"Yes," Saphiro replied. "As soon as we have her and the orb, our mission will be complete. The human world will finally become ours."

"Indeed" Romero agreed. "Then let us begin our search."

"We search for a spaceship called _'The Diplo'_." Saphiro said. "Let's begin at once."

* * *

**Chapter 36: Siblings in debt**

"Alright, transport them up to the Diplo, now!" Cliff ordered the crewmembers of the New Diplo as Sophia looked on worrily.

"Yes sir!" The crewmember said. "Transport sequence will be completed within 20 seconds!"

"If they were in the Daemonium for real… then I can't believe we were just able to reach them." Cliff said, looking at Sophia. "It's supposed to be another dimension, so how could that be?… could it be… your powers of connection, Sophia?"

"I don't know…" Sophia said. "I just wished really hard to speak with them… like I did with the Time Gate 2 years ago… I didn't think that my powers would still work anymore…"

"What's more surprising is that they weren't even in 4D space or anything like that…" Cliff commented. "I guess you have the ability to connect any existing dimensions to our world. Either way, I'm glad it worked. They should be here any second now."

"CAPTAIN!" one crewmember yelled, in panic. "The Transporter Activity… has failed!"

"WHAT?" Cliff yelled, in disbelief. "What do you mean it failed?"

"Oh no!" Sophia yelled in shock.

"We lost them during the transport sequence!" The crewmember said. "They should have appeared here in the Diplo long time ago… there's been an error in the system!"

"An error? In a time like this?" Cliff asked, frustrated. "What's the deal here? Have we lost them completely? Have they disappeared?"

"The computer says there is a 91 percentprobability that space-time differences between the two dimensions is the cause of the transport disruption!" The crewmember reported. "Fortunately, there is only a 2 percent probability that they have disappeared altogether… which means that they're probably just transported to somewhere else in the universe!"

"Well, it's a relief that they haven't disappeared completely, but… now we have to search for them again?" Cliff whined in frustration "How the heck are we supposed to do that now?"

"It's most likely that they have been transported to another coordinate point that we have used sometime in the past..." The crewmember said. "All we can do is to check the transporter history log for the Diplo, and try to find them from each coordinate points in record…"

"Every single coordinate points?" Cliff asked, baffled. "For the Diplo, that would date back to almost 10 years ago! Damn… everyone, get on it!"

"I'm sorry…" Sophia apologized. "My powers weren't strong enough…"

"It's not your fault, Sophia." Cliff consoled her. "There was nothing we could do. Don't worry, we'll find them as soon as we can."

"Please be okay, everyone…" Sophia prayed. "Please be safe…"

* * *

'_It's dark and cloudy in the forests as usual…'_ the small long-eared girl thought to herself as she ventured into the forest, dressed in her usual red shirt and blue skirt. Truly, there never seemed to be a nice day to walk in this forest. Yes, it certainly wasn't a pleasant forest to go out to by any means, but she _had_ to go. For everyday in the last couple weeks, she had walked out to the forest in search of herbs. The harsh winter was coming up, and the village needed all the medicine they could get. These were indeed harsh times for the villagers, but nowhere as bad as how things were 2 years ago, she thought. Compared to back then, a little hardship like this was nothing. They at least had their freedom now, free from the tyrant's grasps. 

Thanks to Fayt.

'_I wonder where he is now…'_ The girl wondered.

As the long-eared girl walked deeper into the forest, she shockingly discovered a group of 8 people lying motionless on the ground. They were all unconscious, and badly hurt.

"OH NO!" The girl yelled, examining each of them. "Those wounds… I wonder what had happened to them?"

'_These people are surely wearing some strange clothes…and… they have weapons!…'_, the girl thought, still a little intimidated by the scene. But she couldn't just run away; these people were badly hurt, and she just had to help them.

"I… I have to heal them!" The girl told herself as she kneeled down to pray. "FAERIE LIGHT!" As the girl prayed, many Faeries appeared from above in a bright light, covering everybody down on the ground with a warm, holy light. Magically, their wounds all disappeared, and they all regained their consciousness.

"Wh…what?" Albel muttered as he regained consciousness. The last thing he could remember was Saphiro saying that he's letting them go, then a flash of bright blue light. Now he was in middle of a dark forest with a little girl staring at them curiously as if they were zoo animals. _'Where the hell are we?' _Albel wondered.

"Where… are we?" Clair asked faintly, feeling like she had wakened up from a deep sleep.

"Yay… my spell worked! I'm so glad!" The little girl said. "Are you all ok now?"

"Um… so you healed us?" Raditz asked. "T…thank you…"

"What happened to you all you guys? Did some monsters attack you?" The girl asked. "You should be more careful! This forest is really dangerous!"

"W…where are we, anyway?" Lancar asked, wondering how they ended up in some forest. "We should have been transported to the Diplo…"

"Where do you guys come from? How come all your ears are so round? And where did you get those weird clothes? Tell me, tell me!" The little girl asked excitedly. For such a small, cute kid, she certainly wasn't too shy.

"Umm… that's what we need to ask you first…" Roger asked the little girl. "Where… are we?"

"Huh? Did you guys lose your memory, too?" The little girl asked. "We're in middle of Pesotto Forest… I just found you guys lying unconscious on the ground… so I had to help…"

"Pesotto…Forest?" Reen asked. "This isn't Roak anymore, is it?"

"Roak? What's that? Tell me" The little girl asked, full of curiousity.

"Damn, it looks like we somehow ended up in another planet…" Lancar said. "It was probably a transporter failure…"

"Transporter failure?" Peppita asked. "You mean, we're now totally lost?"

"Well, be glad that it wasn't something worse." Lancar said. "In a worst case scenario of transporter failure, it's possible for us to just disappear altogether, erased from existence… we should be thankful that we're at least still here in one piece."

"Arrggg…" Farleen whined. "How are we ever gonna find Fayt and Lady Nel now?"

"FAYT?" The little girl asked, shocked. "You guys know Fayt? How? How?"

"What?" Roger asked in surprise. "You know who he is?"

"He saved our village two years ago!" The girl said, excited about discovering someone who knew Fayt. "And he also fixed my music box! Then he just disappeared one day… so are you guys his friends? Where is he? Tell me… please?"

"He what?" Albel asked. "That worm was here before?"

"T…that's right… I remember now! Cliff told me the story…" Lancar recalled. "From what she says, this planet must be… Vanguard III! Fayt crash landed here two years ago while escaping from Hyda, and Cliff and Mirage was sent here to rescue him!"

"Vanguard III?" Reen asked. "I've never heard of this planet before…"

"It's another Underdeveloped Planet." Lancar explained. "Not many people would have."

"Um… planet? Vanguard? Crash? I don't understand…" The girl mumbled, confused. "And I don't know anyone named Clip or Miran… I only know Fayt!"

"I'll explain it all pretty soon." Lancar assured her. "Hey, there's supposed to be a village pretty close to this forest, right? Can we go back there first?"

"You want to go back to Whipple first? Well… okay!" The little girl said, leading the way. "But you have to tell me everything once we get there… Please? Promise?"

"Heh… sure…" Lancar said, thinking that it would be pretty hard to tell her the story without breaking the UP3. "I promise. Let's go back to the village first. By the way, I'm Lancar. A friend of Fayt."

"My name is Meena! Nice to meet you!" Meena introduced herself. "Then let's go back to the village… I'll introduce you guys to my brother!"

* * *

Whipple was pretty much the same small run-down village from 2 years ago. However, the streets were much more lively with people chatting, some of them even welcoming the group to the village now that they were much more accepting to strangers. 

"Here's my house!" Meena said, standing in front of her small house. "I'll go call my brother… Niklas! Niklas! We have guests!"

"Guests?" Niklas asked. Niklas was now much more grown compared to two years ago. He had grown about two feet, and had a much deeper voice. "Meena, who might these guests be?"

"They're Fayt's friends!" Meena told him. "Can they stay and chat for a while? Please?"

"Fayt's friends, you say?" Niklas asked, surprised. "If that's the case, they are very welcome. Please, come in. Any friend of Fayt is friend of ours. My name is Niklas… Meena's brother. Pleased to meet you."

Everybody entered Niklas and Meena's house, which was way too small to host 8 guests in the first place. However, after everybody somehow fitted into the room, and Lancar started explaining the story to Niklas and Meena; excluding some information so that he doesn't break the UP3, of course.

"So… you say that Fayt is now captured by your enemies…" Niklas asked. "That is indeed very bad news…"

"Oh nooooo!" Meena cried, worried about Fayt. "I hope he's going to be alright…"

"I hope you can all succeed in rescuing him soon…" Niklas said. "He is the hero of our village, and I certainly hope that he could visit us one more time. We, the village of Whipple, are at his debt. Please, if there is anything we can do to help, tell us. We will all try to help as best as we can."

"I'm sorry Niklas… we appreciate the thought… but…" Lancar said. "There is not much that you guys can do. He is captured in a place that is really far away from here. But don't worry about him; we'll get him back, and I'll make sure he comes back here to visit!"

"I'm sorry we could not be of any real help…" Niklas said. "But if it helps any, you are free to stay in our village for the night… as it is already getting dark outside. Please stay at our village for tonight to rest up. Do not worry about the money for the inn; I shall take care of it."

"Maybe that's not a bad idea…" Raditz said. "We can't really do much right now, anyway."

"Thank you very much, Niklas." Clair expressed her gratitude, with a bow. "Thank you for your wonderful hospitality."

Before Lancar and others could get up, he heard a voice coming from his communicator. "_Lancar… do you read me? This is Cliff! Please respond!"_

"Cliff?" Lancar exclaimed, running out of the house and reaching back for his communicator. "Captain, It's me, Lancar. Do you read?"

_"I read you, buddy."_ Cliff said. "_First things first... is everybody all right?"_

"Yeah, we're all fine, thanks to Fayt's old friends here." Lancar replied. "We're on Vanguard III, by the way."

_"Yeah, so it seems…"_ Cliff said. "_I have no idea how you guys ended up at THAT hunk of rock…sorry about the transporter failure."_

"Don't worry about it, chief." Lancar said. "So where are you guys? Are you guys ok?"

_"Yeah, we're all fine. And luckily, we were pretty close to the Vanguard System already… so we're coming to get you right now."_ Cliff replied. "_We should be there in about 8 to 10 hours. Hold tight till then… Get some sleep or something."_

"Gotcha." Lancar said. "Sorry captain, but we couldn't defeat the demons… we've tried twice now… but I'll explain it in detail after we meet up."

_"Don't worry about it for now… I'm sure you have your reasons."_ Cliff said. "_We'll talk about it in the Diplo. I'll contact you again when we're there. Talk to ya later."_

"Yup. See you soon." Lancar replied, communication over and out.

"So what's going on, Lancar?" Peppita asked. "Is someone coming to pick us up?"

"Yeah, Cliff's Federation ship will be here by tomorrow morning." Lancar replied. "We'll discuss what to do next when we get there. For now, let's just rest for the night"

* * *

It was middle of the night, but Albel was wide awake, and staring at the stars in the sky standing in the balcony. He couldn't sleep; he couldn't sleep after thinking about what had just transpired at the Daemonium. They were defeated yet _again_. They were all powerless as they had been against Romero the first time. Worst of all, this time, it was against Saphiro, someone who he was waiting for all those years to have an opportunity at revenge. This was his reason in life for training all those years, and this was his reason in life for becoming stronger. _To get his revenge_. And yet, he was defeated just as easily as he was back then. He couldn't even put up a fight. Albel clenched his right fist in rage, furious at himself for his own powerlessness. 

_Have I not become stronger at all?_ Albel asked himself. _Am I a failure, a defect, just as Saphiro claimed him to be? _

_Failure? Defect?_ What did he mean by that, anyway?

"Albel?" Clair called his name, interrupting his thoughts. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"I cannot sleep knowing that I've been defeated." Albel said, not looking at Clair.

"Don't be too harsh on yourself…" Clair said. "None of us could defeat him… we couldn't even hit him, as if he was protected by some mysterious power… I don't think we lost because we were weak."

"There is no excuse in losing." Albel said. "We lost, plain and simple. But don't think that I'm just going to back out. No matter what kind of power they have, I'm going to keep going at them. I won't stop until I'm dead."

"…" Clair was silent, not knowing what to say. After a few seconds, she asked him a question. "Albel… about that demon… was that the…"

"That's the same demon that killed my father and burned my arm." Albel finished the sentence for her. "He's the only reason that I've lived and trained for… to get my revenge on him. I will not rest until I have my revenge."

"Don't tell me you still believe in that… living for revenge…" Clair asked. "After everything we have gone through, I thought your views might have changed…"

"Are you going to repeat your silly lecture?" Albel asked coldly. "Because if you plan on doing so, you can spare me. I don't need to listen to nonsense yet again."

"You're right. I do not plan on repeating it, because you already know what I mean." Clair replied, walking away. "Deep inside, I know you do."

"Hmph. Believe whatever you want." Albel sneered.

"No… Albel…" Clair said, just before walking out the door. "Please believe what _you _want. What you truly want…"

_What did she mean?_ Albel wondered. What did _he_ want to believe?

He wanted to believe that he knew exactly who he really was… Now he wasn't so sure.

He wanted to believe that he was strong… He wasn't strong enough.

He wanted to believe that he could have his revenge… He couldn't.

He wanted to believe that he could have saved Simone in time… He had failed.

He failed because he was a _failure_ himself.

* * *

_"Lancar… do you read me?"_ Cliff asked over the communicator. "_We just arrived at the orbits of Vanguard III. Get everyone ready to be transported to the Diplo."_

"Sure thing, Captain." Lancar responded, walking out of the Inn. "I'll have everyone ready in a few minutes. We'll be out near the Town exit."

_"Make sure no one sees you there… we don't want to violate any UP3 laws here…_ " Cliff said. "_I'll be waiting."_

"Roger." Lancar replied, as he walked up to the rest of the group to tell them that they're going to be leaving. "Alright guys, it's time to go."

"Niklas… Meena… thank you very much once again." Clair said, with a bow. "We'll visit again once everything is over. And don't worry… we'll rescue Fayt. You can count on us."

"I wish you all the best of luck in your journey." Niklas said. "May all of you be successful in rescuing Fayt. I shall pray for all your safety."

"Please be careful, alright?" Meena pleaded. "Please rescue Fayt… and come back here together when it's all over, okay?"

"You bet!" Raditz said. "We won't fail!"

"See ya!" Roger said his farewells, waving. "We'll come back!"

After heading into the forest, and making sure that they were away from the sights of the Villagers, Lancar contacted Cliff.

"Okay Captain. We're here." Lancar said over the communicator

_"Alright Lancar, everyone… get ready…"_ Cliff replied. "_Okay crew; be ready to receive 8 people via transporter. Coordinates confirmed… one… two…three."_

With a flash of blue lights, everyone got transported instantly to the New Diplo.


	12. Part 12: Chapters 37, 38, 39, 40

**Chapter 37: Arrival at the Diplo**

With flashes of blue light, each member of the group appeared on the transporter platform of the New Diplo one by one. After they all had appeared, one of the crewmembers standing by, a tall muscular man with brown hair, greeted them.

"Welcome to the New Diplo, everyone! My name is Justin, I'm the security guard of this ship." The crewmember said, with a salute. "Lancar, good to see you back here safe."

"Thanks, Justin. Good to see you all safe as well." Lancar replied. "So where's the Captain at?"

"The Captain and Miss Sophia are waiting for all of you at the bridge!" Justin told him. "Please attend to them right away!"

"Gotcha." Lancar said, looking back to everyone and leading them forward. "Just follow me, guys."

The interiors of the New Diplo actually still resembled how it used to look like 2 years ago. It seemed that most of the upgrades made was for the artillery, defense shield and the engine, and not so much the interior. Lancar, Albel, Peppita, and Roger all navigated through the Ship with familiarity, but since Clair, Farleen, Raditz, and Reen were obviously all new to it, they examined the interior with great interest.

"Wow, so this is how a top-class Federation ship looks like!" Raditz commented. "It's so huge! And I bet it's loaded with all the latest technology, too!"

"So this is what you call a spaceship…" Clair commented. "So it's like a large building that travels through sea of stars… this is all quite amazing!"

"Heehee, Clair, would you believe it if I told you this 'Large Building' travelled through space at a speed faster than light?" Reen asked, jokingly.

"Are you serious?" Farleen asked. "Wow, all this is soooo advanced… it's even more complicating than all those things I saw at Greeton!"

"All right guys, past this door is the ship's bridge." Lancar announced, standing in front of the door to the bridge. "We'll meet up with the Captain and plan our next move."

As the group entered the door, Cliff and Sophia, both standing and waiting for them with a smile, greeted them. Overcome with emotion, Peppita ran over to Sophia, giving her a big hug.

"Sophia! It's been so long! It's really nice to see you again!" Peppita said. "And I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Peppita? I didn't know you were with them!" Sophia replied, pleasantly surprised, and returning the hug. "But it's so nice to see you! Wow, you've grown so much in two years!"

"Hehe, but you still look the same, Sophia!" Roger said, greeting Sophia with a wave. "But honestly, it's good to see you again!"

"Cliff, I'm glad to be able to meet you once again. It's been a long time." Clair said, bowing to Cliff. "Thank you for helping us in the time of need."

"Yeah!" Farleen agreed. "It's so nice to see you two once again!"

"Heh, it's a great honour to meet you fine ladies once again, too!" Cliff said jokingly. "Seriously though, good to see you all back here safe! You all have changed so much!"

"Haha, likewise, you big lummox!" Roger teased. "But you're still lazy and slow as ever, aren't ya? You could have picked us up much earlier, you know!"

"Heh, and the little brat is still the same as he always was!" Cliff teased back, turning to Albel. "Long time no see, Albel."

"Hmph." Albel grunted, shrugging his greeting off.

"And our good ol' Albel is also exactly the same as he was before, too!" Cliff said with a smirk, now turning to greet Raditz and Reen. "Haven't seen you two before, you must be the newbies who joined them from Roak. Howdy, I'm Captain of this ship, Cliff Fittir. Nice to meet ya!"

"Nice to meet you too, Sir my name is Reen Silvermoon!" Reen replied with a bow.

"It's a honour to meet you, Captain! My name is Raditz Farrence, a former member of Clatos Volunteer Corps!" Raditz said, with a salute. "I'm truly grateful for this opportunity of being inside your top class Federation ship!"

"Heh, you guys don't need to be so formal with me… it's kinda embarrassing…" Cliff said, scratching the back of his head. "And Lancar, good to see you again too, of course! We were getting pretty worried, but I'm glad you're all safe."

"Thanks, Captain." Lancar said, turning to Sophia who was exchanging greetings with Reen and Raditz. "Good to see that you have recovered, Sophia!"

"Thank, Lancar. I'm glad you made it back here safe and sound." Sophia replied.

"Haha, this warm and fuzzy reunion is nice and all, but…" Cliff said, his voice turning serious. "There's still business to take care of… Let's rest for a while then meet back in the Conference room. We'll discuss our plans there."

* * *

After couple hours of rest, everybody went to the big Conference room of the Diplo, all sitting around at the large table. Lancar told Cliff and Sophia everything that had happened to them so far. 

"I see…" Cliff said, in a serious voice. "You guys have sure been through a lot… I would have never thought that things would turn out the way they have so far."

"Yeah…" Lancar said. "We've went into the Daemoneum twice, but we were no match for the Demons there… sorry, Captain."

"It's okay, really… I'm sure it wasn't your fault, but…" Cliff replied, pondering for a second. "You're saying that you can't even harm these demons? Did they have some sort of a defense shield around them?"

"It's no defense shield." Albel replied. "We can't hit them at all. They're like ghosts."

"Yeah, it's as if they weren't even there!" Farleen said. "All of our attacks just went right through them!"

"Hmm, that's really interesting… I've never heard of this technology…" Cliff said. "I was speculating that it might work like how the Ship Invisible did many years ago, but even that was merely an illusion… you couldn't see it but it was still there in physical form."

"They said something about the_ 'Gift of God'_… whatever that means…" Reen commented.

"The _'Gift of God'?" _Cliff asked. "They can't possibly mean… no… that would be impossible now… never mind."

"So what should we do, Captain?" Raditz asked. "How can we defeat these demons?"

"Heh, it's no use asking this idiot!" Roger sneered. "It sounds like the Federation has never heard about things like this before, anyway."

"As much as I hate to agree with the brat, he's right." Cliff said. "We're going to have to think about how to tackle that one…"

"So how is the situation with the other planets, Captain?" Lancar asked. "And have we found out anything about Maria?"

"Well, the situation isn't too good, that's for sure…" Cliff replied with a grim look. "Even the most well-equipped planets like Earth, Klaus and Resonia have suffered great damage from the Demons… we're just barely holding them off at this point. Expel seems like it's going to fall any minute, and planets like the Vendeen and Edifice have already been completely destroyed…"

"Edifice? Totally destroyed?" Lancar asked, getting up suddenly from his seat in concern. "But that's where you said Maria was spotted at!"

"Yeah I know… I'm sorry, but we couldn't track her down, and the Planet has been completely destroyed." Cliff said in a low voice. "There has been no other traces of her whereabouts… it's not like there was a spaceship on that planet, either. We're assuming that Maria's…"

"No, Cliff!" Sophia said. "Don't say that… I'm sure she's still out there somewhere! We can't give up hope!"

"She's right!" Peppita agreed. "Miss Maria is strong! I'm sure she survived the attack! Let's all believe in her!"

"That women would never go down without a fight." Even Albel agreed. "She's also too stubborn to have died so easily."

"Let's hope you are all right." Clair said. "Cliff, how is the situation in our planet? Elicoor II you call it, right?

"Unfortunately, we haven't had the opportunity to check…" Cliff said. "Sorry, Clair… but it's been a handful for us to just defend ourselves as of late."

"I see…" Clair commented worrily. "Then let's hope for the best."

"We're still in the orbits of Vanguard right now, because I wasn't sure of where to go. Let's discuss what to do next…"

As Cliff was about to continue, he was interrupted by an announcement over the speakers.

_"Captain! There is a group of spaceships approaching us from 500,000 kilometres away!"_ A crewmember reported over the speakers. "_I don't know if they're hostile or not, but either way, we need you here immediately, sir!"_

"Hmph, I wonder what this is all about…" Cliff muttered, as he got up. "Alright, let's all go check it out, guys."

* * *

**Chapter 38: The Sacrifice**

"Okay, who are these people?" Cliff asked, as he and others arrived at the bridge of the New Diplo. "Identify the ships, pronto! And try to establish communication with them!"

"It seems that it's a Federation fleet just like us, Captain!" One crewmember reported. "They're a fleet from Roak… 5 ships in total. We're trying our best to establish communication with them at the moment."

"Phew, that's a relief…." Cliff sighed in relief. "I had a hunch that it was some hostile party that we didn't know about… I'm glad I was wrong, though."

"Captain, we have established communication with them!" The crewmember reported.

"On speakers!" Cliff ordered. "This is Captain Cliff Fittir of the Diplo. What's the situation over there?"

_"…Gwa…g…ahhhhhhhhh!"_ Somebody screamed over the speakers, with the communication distorted by static. "_Esc…pe… now… there's… de… UWAAAA!"_

"What the hell?" Cliff cursed. Right at that moment, the five spaceships unloaded their blasts from the Creation Cannons, rocking the Diplo with its impact and knocking everyone down off their feet.

"C…captain! We're being attacked!" A female crewmember yelled in panic. "We've been hit simultaneously by 5 blasts from their Creation Cannons… the shields are already down to 60 percent!"

"Wha…why?" Cliff asked in panic. "They're Federation ships! Why would they…"

"What the hell is going on here?" Albel asked, looking around. "Who's attacking us?"

"There's also been a transporter activity to this ship!" Another crewmember reported. "Someone is coming!"

Right at that moment, the door to the bridge opened. It was Saphiro and Romero, with Saphiro dragging the lifeless body of Justin beside him.

"Justin! NOOOO!" Sophia yelled, shocked at the sight of the security guard dead.

"Why, YOU!" Albel yelled in fury as he unsheathed his katana.

"It's… it's those demons!" Clair shouted.

"It took some time, but we've finally found you mortals." Saphiro said, tossing the dead body of Justin in front of Cliff. "You mortals didn't appear here right away like we expected you to, so we had to put some effort in tracking you down. It's a good thing that you all still somehow lead us back to the girl anyway, heh."

"Give us the girl." Romero said, pointing to Sophia. "She is our target. If you mortals comply, then we might just let you all live, for now."

"Hah, you think we believe you? And you think we'll just let her go like that?" Raditz said, unsheathing his Aura Blade and going into his battle stance. "We're not going down without a fight!"

"You mortals always make it hard on yourselves, don't you?" Saphiro sneered, as a group of 20 demons appeared behind him through the door. "Oh well, then we'll just have to do this forcefully. Capture the girl and kill everyone else, my servants!"

The group of demon servants rushed up to each of the fighters, engaging in battle with them. Everybody fended them off and succeeded in killing them, but the sheer number of the demons made it impossible for them to protect everyone. The demons killed off all the helpless crewmembers one by one.

"NO!" Reen yelled as she burned off one of the demon servants with her Flare Orb attack. "Everyone's… Dying… Stop it!"

"GWAA!" Albel shouted as he sliced and diced his way through number of demons. "Protect the girl! Don't let them get her!"

"Don't worry! They won't lay a finger on her!" Cliff yelled, as he knocked back the demons that were coming Sophia's way with his powerful punches and kicks. "Sophia, just stay behind me!"

"I'm sorry I can't help!" Sophia said as she fended off one demon with her firebolt attack. "I can't use stronger symbology on this ship without destroying the ship!"

"We don't need symbology! Hiya!" Roger yelled as his Whirling Heat attack knocked down another demon. "Just protect yourself, Sophia! Don't worry about us!"

"EEEYYAA!" Raditz yelled as he flied through a group of 4 demons in a flash. The demons were all cut helplessly in half, their corpses dropping to the ground.

"FLYING GUILLOTINE!" Clair yelled as she tossed her Twin Daggers towards the demons like a chainsaw. The attack cut right through 6 demons in a row, effectively taking care of all the demons that were attacking them.

"Huff... Now it's your turn!" Raditz yelled, as he turned towards Saphiro and Romero.

"This time, I'm going to tear apart both of you disgusting demons for good…" Albel said, also turning to the two demons. "Feel my wrath of vengence!"

"Hahaha… you mortals just don't learn at all." Romero laughed, as the demon sword Levantine appeared in his hand. "If we kill you for good this time, will you finally realize that your efforts are futile? You mortals can't ever hope to harm us."

"Take this! UWAAA!" Albel yelled as he lunged towards Saphiro with his Katana held high over his head. Albel slashed downwards, creating a large Crescent moon shaped energy blade with it. "CRESCENT MOON FLASH!" The moon-shaped energy blade flew towards Saphiro, going through him harmlessly.

"You're indeed a failure…" Saphiro commented as he raised his palm towards Albel. "DARK WAVE!" The dark energy wave hit Albel in the chest, knocking him back in pain.

"BURST KNUCKLE!" Raditz yelled as he charged his fists in fire and shot it towards Romero. However, Romero simply reflected his attack right back at him, hitting Raditz and knocking him down on the floor.

"Such weak attacks…" Romero sneered. "Even without the 'gift of god', this would be too easy. The skills of you mortals are pathetic."

"ELECTRIC FISTS!" Lancar yelled as he delivered three powerful lightning punches at Saphiro, which went right through him as usual. "You can't hit us, foolish mortals. When are you going to recognize the obvious?" Saphiro asked as he dropped Lancar with a swipe from his wing.

After knocking Lancar down, Saphiro shot a sharp laser beam towards Clair from his eye. Clair covered herself helplessly as it was too late for her to dodge the lightning quick beam.

_Clair!_

At that moment, Albel jumped right in front of Clair, intercepting the beam. "GWAAAAAAA!" Albel let out a blood-curdling scream as the beam burned a hole through Albel's right chest, knocking him down unconscious in a pool of blood.

"ALBEL!" Clair yelled in shock. "NOOOOO!"

"Hahaha… just like his father. How foolish." Saphiro sneered with an evil grin in his face. "Sacrificing his own life… how pathetic."

"Albel…" Clair spoke faintly as she rushed to his side. "Why did you…"

"…" Cliff remained speechless as he helplessly witnessed his comrades getting beaten down one by one, thinking deeply about something with his head down.

"Cliff…" Sophia mumbled from behind him, trembling with fear. "They're right… we can't hit them at all… they're too powerful! In this pace, we're all going to… Cliff, I'll go with them. I don't want you all to die!"

"Don't ever say something stupid like that again, Sophia." Cliff said adamantly as he suddenly raised his head in determination. "You're all going to live. I'll make sure of it."

Cliff suddenly stepped back, punching in some commands into the main computer and picking up a device in his hand. He then walked ahead, right in front of the demons.

"Alright, everyone, listen up!" Cliff yelled. "We're going to have to retreat for now! I've activated the Emergency shuttle, you guys all run for it! I'll hold them off!"

"What?" Reen yelled. "But…"

"We don't stand a chance of beating these demons right now!" Cliff yelled. "Sometimes, it's better to run! It's important that we all live first! Run to the shuttle… and protect Sophia at all costs!"

"No! Cliff!" Sophia yelled in objection. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about me… I'll make my getaway… I can get out with the escape pod." Cliff assured Sophia. "I'll join up with you guys soon."

"Alright then… you all heard the Captain… let's escape to the shuttle!" Lancar yelled, as he picked up Albel to run towards the transporter to the shuttle. "Cliff, don't overdo it! Get out of here as fast as you can!"

"Thank you, Captain!" Reen said, as she followed Lancar to the transporter. "Be careful!"

"Please don't overexert yourself, Cliff!" Farleen yelled as she also followed Lancar and Reen to the transporter. "We'll be waiting!"

Roger also started running towards the transporter, but then slowed down in thought, before eventually running back towards where Cliff was standing.

'_I can't just leave him alone_…' Roger thought.

"You guys can all go…" Roger said, standing beside Cliff. "But I'm staying with him!"

"Roger, no!" Cliff yelled. "Just go!"

"You thought I was just going to leave you behind all alone, idiot?" Roger said as he got into his fighting stance. "We're rivals, we're comrades, and we're buddies… I'm not going to leave you here fighting by yourself! I'm sticking with you!"

"…" Cliff stayed silent, shocked at Roger's decision to stay with him.

"Heh, more foolishness." Saphiro sneered, not attacking yet. "And more useless sacrifices… these mortals just make me laugh even more. Let's watch this hilarity of a moment for a bit, Romero. It's really quite amusing."

"But Roger…" Peppita said. "We should get out of here for now. Cliff will be fine, I'm sure of it!"

"You go, Peppita!" Roger retorted. "But I made up my mind. I'm fighting with him!"

"Roger…" Cliff muttered as he slowly turned to Roger. "I'm sorry…"

Suddenly, Cliff unleashed a sharp but gentle punch right into unsuspecting Roger's midsection, just enough to take the wind out of him and knock him out.

"W…why…" Roger muttered as he fell unconscious.

"Heh, I've wanted to do that to this brat for such a long time…" Cliff said with a bittersweet grin. "Guys, please take care of him… I had to do that… he wouldn't have listened to anything I said. I'm sorry."

"C…Captain…" Raditz muttered, picking up Roger and turning towards the path to the transporter. "O…okay."

"…Cliff… please be careful... " Clair said, as she turned back to run as well.

As everybody ran safely towards the transporter that led to the emergency shuttle, Cliff closed his eyes briefly in thought, then opened his eyes and walked up to the two demons to confront them face-to-face.

"Alright, you demons, now it's your turn." Cliff yelled cockily. "It's time to say your prayers!"

"Heh, you have guts, mortal. I'll give you credit for that." Romero said, holding up his Levantine. "But I can't decide whether this was an act of bravery or foolishness. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment. We will not let you escape in your pod. You'll be dead before then."

"You have to be insane to think that you can put up a fight with us." Saphiro said. "We're just going to kill you in a matter of seconds and then track them down. Even if they have escaped in that shuttle, it'll be easy enough to track them down with this spaceship. It's all useless."

"Oh, I'm not escaping to anywhere. There aren't any escape pods, anyway. And there won't be too much of a fight, that's for sure." Cliff smirked, slowly moving his thumb over the button on the device in his hand. "But you won't be using my spaceship to track them down, either!"

"What?" Romero asked, confused.

"This ship is loaded with the newest creation engine that produces the energy level equivalent to magnitude 3.5!" Cliff yelled. "Think you are strong enough to withstand such explosion?"

"What? Why you!" Saphiro yelled as he started panicking. "You're not thinking of…!"

"Even if you can somehow withstand that explosion, I wonder if you Demons can survive out there in open space! Heh…" Cliff taunted, "Because us mortals certainly can't!"

"You're going to self-destruct?" Romero shouted in fear, before lunging towards Cliff. "That's not going to happen! DIE!"

'_I'm sorry, guys…this is the only way…'_ Cliff prayed. _'Please everyone… be safe… and save this universe…'_

"If I'm gonna go, I'm taking you sonsofbitches with me!" Cliff yelled, as he pushed the button on his device. "Sayonara, motherfuckers!"

'_Goodbye…'_

* * *

Meanwhile, everybody on the shuttle stared out the window towards the Diplo, waiting for Cliff's escape. 

"Cliff… come on! Where is he?" Lancar asked in panic as he put injured and unconscious Albel down on the floor. "He should be out of there by now!"

"Uhh…uhhhhh" Roger moaned as he finally came to. "Wh…where's Cliff?"

"He's still in the ship!" Peppita said. "Don't worry… he'll be out any minu…"

Before Peppita finished her sentence, the group witnessed in shock as a blinding flash of light engulfed the Diplo with a deafening sound. When the dust settled, there was nothing left behind.

Diplo had disintegrated completely without a trace.

"CLIFF!" Lancar yelled, completely stunned. "NO!"

"Cliff…" Clair yelped as she weakly dropped to her knees. "Please… no…"

"NO! NO! NOOOOO!" Roger started crying as he started banging on the windows in front of him repeatedly with his fists, overcome with emotion. "YOU DUMBASS! YOU LIAR! YOU STUPID…BWAAAAA!"

"Cliff!…" Sophia yelped weakly as she covered her face with her hands, tears welling up in her eyes. Farleen and Peppita started crying as well, both kneeling down on the ground in despair.

"Captain…" Raditz muttered weakly with his head down, as he went over to console Reen weeping in sorrow.

"Cliff… don't tell me you planned this…" Lancar mumbled in despair. "Why did you do something so stupid…"

As everybody was bereaving Cliff's death, a small meteorite crashed into the rear of the emergency shuttle, rocking it violently and knocking everybody down off their feet.

"AHHHH!" Sophia screamed as she hit her head hard on the floor, knocking her out unconscious.

"Sophia!" Lancar yelled as he rushed over to the control board. "Damn, we've been hit by a meteorite! It completely damaged the rear… the ship is going down!"

"Oh no!" Peppita yelled. "What can we do?"

"We'll have to make an emergency landing…" Lancar said, pulling on the control sticks. "All we can do is… pray that we get lucky… everyone, hold on to something!"

The Shuttle fell rapidly through the atmosphere of Vanguard III, as Lancar did his best to guide the ship into a forest to cushion the fall. The shuttle finally crashed into the Pesotto Forest, rolling along for hundreds of meters before it finally stopped in a heap of smoke.

* * *

**Chapter 39: Return to Whipple**

"Urrg…" Lancar muttered as he slowly got up from his seat in the crashed shuttle "Is everyone ok?"

"I'm… I'm okay…" Farleen said weakly, looking a bit dazed. "How's everyone else?"

"I… I think we're okay…" Raditz mumbled in pain, as he had been covering Reen to protect her from the crash.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but…" Reen said, as she looked to Raditz's wounded arm. "Raditz, are you ok? Oh my god… that's a terrible wound… you didn't have to protect me like that, I'm sorry…"

"No… it's… nothing…" Raditz muttered, holding his badly damaged arm. "Don't worry about it."

"Sophia… are you ok?" Farleen asked Sophia, who was down on the floor unconscious. "… She's breathing fine, but she's unconscious…"

"A… Albel?" Clair mumbled as she also slowly got up from the floor. "W…where did Albel go? Is he alright?"

Albel was crumpled in the corner, lying motionless on the floor.

"ALBEL!" Clair yelled as she rushed over to his side as quickly as possible.

"He's still breathing… thankfully" Lancar said, examining the nasty wound on Albel's chest. "But that's a terrible wound… we need to heal him immediately."

"HEALING!" Clair casted her healing spell right away, trying to seal Albel's wound. However, the wound was too big for her to seal completely with her spell.

"Shit, it's no good…" Lancar cursed. "The spell's too weak to seal such a big wound… the medical kit here on this shuttle wouldn't do much, either…"

"No… Albel… it's because of me…" Clair muttered in despair, before finally getting up. "We need to do something!"

"Where are we right now?" Peppita asked. "Maybe we should go find a doctor in one of the towns in this planet…"

"I'm pretty sure we landed in Pesotto forest…" Lancar said. "So maybe we should head back to Whipple for now… that's right, maybe Meena can help? She was really proficient in healing symbology… she healed us all at once last time!"

"Then let's head there right away!" Clair said. "He doesn't have much time left!"

"Alright, let's go!" Lancar told everyone, picking Albel up to head out. "The village shouldn't be too far away from here…"

"…" Roger just sat in the corner silently with his head down, looking really depressed.

"Roger, we have to leave, now! Albel's life is in danger!" Peppita told him. "And I don't want anyone else dying anymore! So please… let's get going before it's too late."

"…Okay…" Roger replied weakly as he got up to follow the party out to Whipple.

* * *

"Meena, do you think you can seal this wound?" Lancar asked her as everybody stood around Albel lying in the bed in Niklas and Meena's house. "You might be the only one that could do it…" 

"Umm…ummm… I don't know… the wound's so big…" Meena mumbled, intimidated by the sight of the big nasty wound. "But I'll try…"

"Meena is one of the most gifted healers here in Whipple." Niklas commented. "I know she can do it."

"I'll help out as best as I can…" Clair said, readying her healing spell. "Meena… I beg of you… please try your best… please save his life for me…"

"Okay, I'll do my best… here I go…" Meena said, as she kneeled down to pray. "FAIRY HEAL!" A magical fairy appeared over Albel's wound with a holy light, covering and sealing the wound slowly.

"It's… it's working!" Clair announced in a glimmer of hope, as she casted her healing spell to help out. "HEALING!" The two spells combined together wonderfully, successfully sealing Albel's wound completely.

"He should be fine now!" Meena said with a smile. "Just let him get some sleep and he'll be okay!"

"T…thank you so much, Meena!" Clair thanked Meena by bowing to her. "I am in your debt… you saved his life! I don't know how I can ever repay you…"

"It's nothing really… heehee…" Meena said, blushing. "I'm just glad that I can help others. It's what I always wanted to do!"

"Being a doctor and saving lives has always been Meena's dream" Niklas said. "Please, do not worry about repaying us. We are just glad to help our friends out in the time of need."

"Thank you… once again…" Clair said gratefully.

"But Meena, wow… that's an advanced healing technique that I've never seen before… it was amazing!" Farleen said. "What kind of runes do you have inscribed on your body? Can I see it?"

"Runes?" Meena asked, confused.

"Yeah… runes… isn't that how you casted your healing magic, by using runes?" Farleen asked. "Or maybe you guys call it symbology… or heraldry… or something like that. It's like a tattoo on your body…"

"Umm… I've never heard of anything like that…" Meena said. "I don't have any tattoos… I just pray and wish real hard to heal the person's wounds!"

"Yes, Meena, as I have said, is born with a special gift." Niklas explained. "We do not know how she received the power, or what it is exactly, but it is said in our legends that only the pure-hearted can manipulate such holy powers. Meena is one of the only few with this ability… most of us cannot manipulate such phenomenon, including myself."

"So you can cast spells without any symbols on your body, huh…" Raditz asked. "I've never heard of anything like that… that's really interesting."

"Yeah… hey, I'll heal your arm too, big brother!" Meena said as she went over to heal the wound on Raditz's arm.

"But that was certainly a nasty wound…" Niklas commented, looking at Albel. "How was he injured so badly? This mission of yours must be much more dangerous than I have thought."

"Yeah, these demons are tough." Lancar said, his head down "We've also just lost a comrade in a battle… we're all lucky that we even survived."

"…Oh no…" Meena mumbled, with a sad look on her face.

"…That is very unfortunate. Please accept my deepest apologies." Niklas gave his condolences. "We can't be of much help, but please take as long as you need here in this town to recuperate. We'll do the best we can."

"Thanks…" Lancar thanked him, before turning towards Sophia who was also lying on another bed. "There's no way to cure her state though, right?"

"She's fallen comatose…" Clair commented. "Recovery spells wouldn't really help much in her situation… there's nothing much we can do at the moment. We're just going to have to hope that she regains her consciousness soon."

"Yeah, I'm worried…" Peppita said in concern. "She hit her head really hard on the floor when she fell… I really hope that she'll wake up soon."

"So what are going to do now?…" Reen asked. "The Diplo is gone… and we have no way of getting around… where do we go from here?"

"I don't know… if there is a fortunate in this unfortunate situation, it is that those two demons are now probably dead." Lancar commented. "There's no way that those demons could have survived that kind of an explosion; the magnitude of that blast was strong enough to destroy a single planet. Even if they somehow survived the explosion, I doubt they can survive out there in space..."

"Huh?" Meena asked, confused. "Planet?… space?"

"We don't quite understand… what in the world do you mean?" Niklas asked, also confused.

'_Shoot… the UP3… I totally forgot about it.'_ Lancar thought to himself.

"Um, those are just terms that we use in our own country, far away from here. You wouldn't understand." Lancar brushed the questions off, changing the topic. "Niklas, there's been sightings of Demons nearby here as well, right?"

"Yes… there were few demons seen wandering around in the Pesotto forest." Niklas explained. "From the stories I've heard, they are coming from the Ruins of Coffir. Our village is already preparing for war… we think that they will be an invasion any day now."

"So this village is in danger too?" Raditz asked. "Damn… I'm sorry to say this, but it won't be much of a fight. Those demons are way too strong for you guys."

"We are aware of that…" Niklas said, with his head down and his eyes closed. "But still, we won't just let them destroy our village freely. We're not going to run away… we will fight until the end."

"No! You can't do that…" Reen objected. "I don't want to see anymore innocent lives lost… especially in a fight that you know you can't win!"

"You do not have to worry…" Niklas continued. "We're going to evacuate the elderly and the children to a nearby town… they'll be safe for now. Either way, we have to put up some sort of resistance. We can't just keep running away… they will eventually get to us."

"…" Lancar stayed silent in thought for a while, before finally coming upon a decision. "Niklas… don't worry about the fighting. We'll go to the Ruins of Coffir and clear out the demons."

"What? No, we can't ask you to do such a thing for us!" Niklas retorted. "We do not wish for you to get involved in our war…"

"Don't worry, Niklas. We're also going there for our own mission as well." Lancar explained. "We'll go there to do our own thing, and kill all the demons that just happen to be there! As long as our benefit meets the benefit of the villagers here, it's okay, right? It'll work out for everybody… we'll be killing two birds with one stone!"

"Lancar?" Farleen asked. "What do you exactly plan to do?"

"Well, they said that this Ruins of Coffir place is full of Demons, right?" Lancar explained. "So from there, I'm thinking that maybe we can find a way back into the Daemoneum. We still have the 'Eye of the Truth'... maybe it will also work here."

"Yeah… it might be the only way out of here. We have to take the chance." Raditz agreed.

"You're right… there is nothing much else we can do." Clair agreed as well. "Let's go check it out."

"But the Ruins of Coffir will be really dangerous!" Niklas objected. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"We're going to have to fight them eventually, anyway!" Peppita told him. "So we might as well fight them now… and besides, I don't want all the nice people of this village to get hurt… like you and Meena… you have all been so nice to us."

"… I understand. Then I guess we are in your debt once again." Niklas said, with a bow. "I really can't thank you enough for doing this."

"Ah, don't sweat it." Raditz said. "Anyways, let's all rest for tonight then head out to the ruins tomorrow morning."

* * *

**Chapter 40: A Helping Hand**

Everybody headed over to the nearby Inn at Whipple to rest for the night for free, as Niklas and Meena's house was too small to accommodate everybody. The nightfall came soon enough, and everybody went to their separate rooms for the night's sleep. However, Clair was tossing and turning in her bed, not able to sleep.

'_Albel…'_ Clair thought to herself, before finally getting up to head over to the room where Albel was sleeping. Clair quietly opened the door, and entered the room to see Albel still sleeping comfortably.

'_Albel risked his life for me… he would have never done anything like that before.'_ Clair thought, as she pulled up a chair to sit beside his bed. _'Has he… has he changed?'_

Right at that moment, Albel opened his eyes and woke up from his sleep, to Clair's surprise. "…aaahhh…" Albel moaned, his mind still hazy from the deep sleep. "W… where are we?"

"Albel? Are you feeling alright?" Clair asked.

"I'm…fine…" Albel replied, still drowsy. The last thing he could remember was diving in front of Clair to intercept Saphiro's laser beam during the fight in the Diplo. "The demons… what happened to them? And where are we?"

"We're back at Planet Vanguard for now… in that same village we were in before…" Clair told him. "I'll explain everything that happened…"

Clair then explained all the things that happened after Albel had lost consciousness. She told him about their escape from the ship, Cliff's sacrifice, how the shuttle crash landed back in Vanguard, and their plans for tomorrow morning. Albel just listened to her quietly, noticeably shocked at the mention of Cliff's death.

"Cliff…" Albel said. "So he is dead…"

"Yes, he sacrificed his life for us…" Clair told him, with her head down. "We're still in shock about what happened… it was devastating for all of us."

"…" Albel fell silent in thought for a while. Even though he had never particularly cared for Cliff, he felt that he was still a great comrade in battle. Deep inside, he mourned Cliff's loss as well, though he didn't show it to Clair.

"What about those two Demons?" Albel asked. "Are they still chasing us?"

"We're assuming that they were still in the ship when it exploded…" Clair said. "Lancar told me it's almost certain that they were killed in the blast as well."

"Is that so?" Albel asked. At first, he was disappointed by the fact that he was now never going to have the opportunity to avenge his father's death. He really wanted to kill Saphiro with his own hand. He wanted his revenge.

_Or did he?_ Did it really even matter to him anymore?

"So we will leave for that place called the Ruins of Coffir tomorrow." Clair told him, interrupting his thought. "They say that it's infested with demons at the moment. We're hoping that we can somehow make our way back to the Daemoneum from there. Now that those two demons are likely dead, we probably stand a better chance this time."

"I see…" Albel commented. "We'll head out tomorrow, then. Go back to your sleep."

"Alright… make sure you get plenty of rest for tomorrow too, Albel." Clair told him, as she got up and headed back out the door. However, just before she walked out, she turned back to talk to him again.

"Albel…" Clair said. "Thank you for saving my life back at the spaceship."

"…" Albel looked away, avoiding eye contact. "…Don't expect me to save you like that ever again. Be alert in battle at all times... or else you're going to get yourself killed."

"…Right." Clair replied, thinking that it wasn't quite the response that she was hoping for, yet it was quite a typical response from him at the same time. Clair wanted to ask him the question 'Why did you save me?', but she decided not to, as she walked out the door. It didn't seem like it was the right time for her to ask him that question.

As Clair walked out of the room, she ran into Reen, who was standing not too far from the door. Flustered, Clair turned away, while Reen had an amused look on her face.

"Heehee, Clair, you're sneaking into Albel's bedroom late at night? That's so naughty!" Reen teased.

"I just wanted to see how he was doing…" Clair explained, blushing. "How come you're up so late, Reen?"

"Me? Well… I just plain couldn't sleep…" Reen said. "So… what did you guys talk about?"

"I just told him about everything that had happened so far, and about our plans for tomorrow." Clair said. "That's about it…"

"That's it? Pssshhh…" Reen teased. "Why do you guys always talk about the boring stuff? You guys should talk about other things… you know, intimate stuff."

"No…" Clair muttered, embarrassed. "It's nothing like that…"

"You know, sometimes, I think you should be a little more direct with him!" Reen told her. "Try to wrap your arm around his, hug him and things like that… you know, show your affection! He always pretends as if he doesn't like that kind of attention, but deep inside, I know he doesn't mind. Trust me… teehee"

"Um…" Clair mumbled, her face now beet red. "No… Reen, it's really nothing. There is nothing going on between us… we're just comrades…"

"Hah, yeah right! That's a good one!" Reen joked. "You know, it's no use hiding it. It's pretty obvious to everybody already… that you guys are crazy for each other… I'm just trying to help you out here!"

"That's really an exaggeration…" Clair said.

"Really? I don't think so… why else would two people risk their lives for each other?" Reen asked, her face turning a little serious. "I heard about how you saved him at the dungeon back at Elicoor… and we all saw how he risked his life for you back in the Diplo…"

"…" Clair was speechless, not knowing what to say.

"Albel wouldn't risk his life for anyone else but you, Clair. He would die _only_ for you… and no one else…" Reen said, with her eyes slowly getting teary. "I hate to admit it, but after seeing that, I realized I don't stand a chance. You're the one he loves… and no matter how hard I try, that's not going to change."

"Reen…" Clair said, realizing how hard all this was for Reen.

"So try to be a little more direct with him, you hear?" Reen said, smiling with tears still in her eyes. "Don't make it so frustrating for all of us who are watching!"

"Reen…" Clair said, giving her a hug. "…Thank you."

"Okay… heh… before I burst into tears and embarrass myself… I'm gonna go!" Reen said, wiping her eyes and running back to her room. "Good night Clair… and think about what I said, ok?"

"Good night Reen…" Clair replied. She had always seen Reen to be a little bothersome after she forced herself into the party back at Tropp, but had just she realized how she really was as a person. She was truly an honest, kind, and purehearted girl. She was a true comrade; and more importantly, a true friend.

* * *

"Niklas?" Meena called her brother as she opened the door to his bedroom. "Are you still awake?" 

"…What's wrong, Meena?" Niklas asked in drowsy voice. "Are you feeling sick again? I'll prepare the medicine for you…"

"No, it's nothing like that Niklas, don't worry…" Meena said, as she sat beside her brother on the bed. "I just wanted to talk to you about something…"

"This late?" Niklas asked. "Is this something serious? What would you like to talk to me about?"

"Niklas… I…" Meena mumbled. "… Can I travel with Mr. Lancar and others to the Ruins of Coffir tomorrow?"

"What did you say? You surely can't be serious about that, Meena!" Niklas yelled, dumbfounded. "Do you have any idea about how dangerous it will be there?

"Yeah… I know… but still…" Meena explained. "Niklas, I want to help everybody rescue Fayt and save our village, too! I promise I won't be too much of a burden…my healing powers could be useful if they get injured…"

"No… you don't understand the situation at all, Meena." Niklas said adamantly. "It's really kind of you for wanting to help them, but this is a really dangerous mission… you can even be killed! I don't want that to happen… with out parents gone, you're the only person I have left in this world, Meena. I don't want to lose you."

"But… Niklas…" Meena went on. "I really want to help them… if it wasn't for Fayt two years ago, Norton's gang would still be terrorizing our village! He's the one that brought us freedom… and he fixed daddy's music box… we owe him so much! I just want to do something to help him back…"

"I understand exactly what you are saying, Meena…" Niklas said. "And I agree with everything you said… but sorry… I really can't let you go… and it's likely that they won't let you travel with them, either. You could end up being more of a burden than help to them if you happen to get in trouble."

"But…but…" Meena mumbled.

"Sorry, Meena." Niklas said, as he guided Meena back to her room. "I can't let you go, and that's final. Now get some sleep. We're going to see everyone off early tomorrow morning."

"…" Meena was speechless, frustrated that Niklas didn't give her the permission to go.

* * *

The next gray, misty, and drizzly morning, everybody gathered around the town exit at Whipple, getting ready to head out to the Ruins of Coffir. Niklas and Meena also came out to see them off. 

"Niklas, Meena, I just want to thank you two once again." Clair said. "We will clear out those demons for you, and make sure that the village will be safe. We promise."

"I wish you the best of luck." Niklas said. "And we are the ones that should thank you. I don't know how we can ever repay you for such a kind deed. We, the village of Whipple, will pray for your safety and success."

"…" Meena stayed silent for a while, before finally speaking out. "Please be careful… and promise me that you'll be back!"

"We'll be fine. Don't worry about a thing, little Meena." Raditz said as he playfully placed his hand over her head, messing her hair up a bit. "We'll come back, I promise."

"Alright, let's go…" Lancar said, lifting still unconscious Sophia in his arms. He then looked back to Roger, who was still depressed about Cliff's death. "Roger, you ready to go?"

"…" Roger merely nodded weakly, his body devoid of the usual energy.

"Aww… it's really difficult to see him like this…" Farleen commented in concern. "He's usually so full of energy and enthusiasm… poor little guy… he's taking this harder than anyone else."

"Yeah… I know…" Lancar said, leaning over to Peppita to whisper something in her ear. _"Hey, Peppita… can you try to cheer him up a little bit?"_

"Me? Why me?" Peppita wondered.

_"Something tells me that you're the only one who would be able to cheer him up…"_ Lancar explained, as he gently pushed Peppita towards where Roger was. _"Just do it…"_

"Okay…" Peppita agreed hesitantly, confused on why it had to be her.

"Alright Roger, let's get going! Common! Where's all that usual energy that comes from you? Lift your head high and march on with confidence like how you always used to! You're da MAN, aren't ya?" Peppita joked playfully.

"…" Roger didn't say anything, but lifted his head slightly.

"I know, Roger… I know you're really sad about what happened to Cliff…" Peppita said, as her voice suddenly turned more serious. "But there was nothing you could really do… there was nothing _we _could do. So don't feel like you're the only one responsible… we all feel that way too."

"Peppita…" Roger mumbled, raising his head to finally look at her.

"And you're not the only one who is sad…" Peppita said with tears in her eyes. "We're all sad that Cliff is no longer with us. But that's what friends are for, right? We can all support each other, and depend on each other in hard times like this. You're not alone, Roger. You still have us... don't forget that."

"…You're right…" Roger agreed, as he got the look of determination in his eyes.

"Cliff saved our lives… and he gave us this chance… we can't let Cliff's sacrifice just go to waste. Let's all go together and defeat all the demons for good, and save our universe once again!" Peppita went on. "That's how Cliff would want it, too!"

"Heh… that's right, Peppita… You know what, I can't keep sulking like this!" Roger said loud and clear, with confidence. "I bet that moron is looking down from the sky right now and making fun of me… heh… I won't let that fool just laugh at me like that! I'll show him, and all those demons that you can't keep a REAL MAN down… I'll show them all what I'm really made of!"

"That's the spirit!" Peppita smiled brightly, wiping away the tears in her eyes.

"Heh, Cliff was right. Deep inside, he's really a good kid." Lancar commented.

"He sure is…" Clair agreed with a smile, along with Farleen, Raditz and Reen.

"Hmph…" Albel grunted, though he had a slight grin on his face as well. "So what are you waiting for, kid? Get moving already!"

"ALRIGHT! THEN LET'S GO!" Roger yelled cheerfully, full of energy like how he always used to be. With that, the group all headed out to the Pesotto forest, towards the Ruins of Coffir.


	13. Part 13: Chapters 41, 42, 43, 44

**Chapter 41: The Mysterious Spaceship**

As the group confidently marched into the Ruins of Coffir, they noticed thick layers of dark gray thunderclouds covering over them up in the sky. After a few moments, a light autumn drizzle began to fall, slowly soaking everybody as if they were taking a gentle shower.

"Damn, it's raining… and it's getting dark, too…" Raditz complained. "It's all so crummy, doesn't really help your mood much either, that's for sure."

"This planet is known to have really harsh weather all year long…" Lancar explained, reading out the details from his quad scanner. "It's probably one of the reason why the development of agriculture and technology is so slow here."

"I don't mind the rain, really… but…" Farleen said, as Reen created a large umbrella-like energy barrier over the party with her orb to keep everyone dry. "It's really making this place more freaky… it's like walking through a dark, rainy graveyard… it's really creeping me out."

"Well, get used to it." Albel retorted. "Because if you don't stay focused, this place will become YOUR graveyard."

Before Farleen could respond, the group noticed a gigantic UFO-looking spaceship descending from the sky at a far distance. It was falling rapidly, as if it was going to crash down on the ground.

"Wha…What the HECK is that thing?" Roger yelled, astonished at the size of the spaceship. "It's HUGE! And it looks like it's going to crash!"

"…That's not an ordinary spaceship… I've never seen anything like that before…" Lancar replied, finding it hard to believe himself. "There's never been a spaceship made which is THAT huge… that thing is big enough to cover a small town!"

"What the hell?" Raditz muttered, dumbfounded, staring at the descending spaceship.

The huge UFO-like ship struggled to slow down in the air, before finally crashing down on the planet with a large thud, creating a strong earthquake in nearby areas and knocking everybody down off their feet.

"…BAH!" Albel grunted, getting quickly back up from the ground. "So it has landed here… I have a feeling whatever that is in there didn't come here to negotiate for peace."

"I have no idea where it came from…" Lancar explained, slowly getting up to dust himself off. "It's certainly not from the Federation, I can tell you that."

"Could it be?" Clair asked. "They invaded Cliff's spaceship before… could it possibly be… another group of demons?"

"I doubt they would have a technology to create something like that…" Lancar explained, looking through his quad scanner. "That thing is… almost 2 miles in diameter! Unbelievable… We're lucky that it slowed down in time… or that crash would have leveled this entire planet!"

"Do you think we should go check it out?" Farleen asked.

"No. We have no idea about who came in that thing… it could be the demons, like how Clair said." Raditz explained. "We can't take that risk… we would be playing right into their hands. Plus, we got a job to do here… we have to clear out the demons, remember?"

"Focus on our main mission, fools." Albel said adamantly, as he walked ahead of everybody. "The only thing we are concerned about is entering the Daemonium again. Demons or not, there is no reason for us to turn back now to check that thing out."

"Albel's right. Whoever that is in there is most likely an enemy." Lancar agreed, as he followed Albel's lead. "Let's go on ahead. We're almost near the main ruins."

* * *

"Meena, are you okay?" Niklas yelled as he hurried over to Meena's room at their house in Whipple. "That was a terrible earthquake… you're not hurt, are you?" 

Niklas stepped into Meena's room, only to see an empty room. Meena was not there.

"Meena?" Niklas yelled, as he frantically ran out to search throughout his house. "Meena! Where are you? MEENA!" Niklas thoroughly checked the entire house without any luck, and then ran outside to check the rest of the village for her whereabouts. Nobody had seen Meena around.

"Huff…Meena…" Niklas mumbled in despair, out of breath. "Where are you…"

* * *

Meena slowly got up from the ground in Pesotto Forest, having fallen down from the sudden earthquake just a moment ago. 

"Ouch…" Meena mumbled. "…An earthquake? What's going on?… I hope Niklas is okay…"

After Meena gathered herself, she started running towards the path to the Ruins of Coffir in a hurry. _'I'm sorry Niklas… I'm really sorry…'_ Meena apologized in her mind, with a determined look on her face. _'But I have to help them. I'll come back home…I promise."_

* * *

The group made their way towards the main structure of the Ruins of Coffir, which looked like it had been leveled years ago. Indeed, this was the same building that Fayt and Cliff had decided to blow up after rescuing Niklas. As the group approached the entrance that somebody had obviously created through the rubble, they were greeted by a group of 20 demon monsters. 

"These mortals seem to want to die an early death." One demon sneered. "They have foolishly come here to challenge us first."

"Heh, I'll make sure all of you die an early death whether you want to or not, scums." Albel taunted, unsheathing his katana to get ready for battle.

"You will not be hurting anyone on this planet!" Raditz said, also unsheathing his Aura Blade. "I shall fulfill my promise, and rid all you demons from this world!"

"They sure sound very confident for mere mortals." Another demon said. "ATTACK! Kill them all!"

Two demons simultaneously attacked Albel from both sides. Right before their claw swipes were about to hit Albel, Albel disappeared in a blur; making the two demons accidentally hit each other with their own attacks. As the two demons staggered back from being hit by each other, Albel slashed with his katana twice while yelling "CHAOS SWORD!" The double dark energy wave generated from his Chaos Sword attack ripped through the two demons, downing them in a flash.

"What?" one demon yelled, shocked at how easily Albel took care of the two demons. "The mortals from this planet should stand no chance against us… how can they be so strong?"

"We're not from this planet, idiots." Raditz taunted as he appeared out of nowhere behind the demon, impaling him with a rapid sword thrust then swinging him upwards to toss him high in the sky. Following up on his Climhazard attack, Raditz jumped high in the air, swinging his sword downwards to cut the demon in half.

"TRIPLE KICK!" Lancar yelled as the energy wave from his three rapid spin kicks repelled away all the demons that were coming towards unconscious Sophia lying on the ground. "Take her if you can, demons…" Lancar taunted. "You can all try and die!"

"MAGIC HOOK!" Peppita yelled as her Magic Hook attack caught one of the demons, causing it to spin around in a daze. Roger took this opportunity to lunge towards the demon, yelling "FLYING TORPEDO!" Roger dove head first into the demon, going right through it and tearing a hole in its midsection. The demon dropped to the ground, lifeless.

"Everybody, move away!" Clair yelled, as she charged for one of her symbology attacks. "SOUTHERN CROSS!" Clair's Southern Cross spell created a large cross symbol on the ground, as five star-like energy balls descended down from the sky. The explosions from the stars blasted through all the demons standing in the area, disintegrating them instantly.

"Let's combine for that attack we talked about before, Farleen!" Reen yelled, as she combined her orbs into one large energy ball. "Charge it up!"

"Alright! THUNDER FLARE!" Farleen yelled as her Thunder Flare spell covered around Reen's big energy ball, creating a large ball of lightning. Reen then tossed the mass lightning orb towards the group of 4 demons, as it exploded and fried them all crisp.

"EYAAA!" Albel yelled as he cut through the last remaining demon that was attempting to flee from the battle. The group had won the fight without any damage done to them, completely outclassing the strength of the demons.

"That's about all of 'em!" Raditz yelled in triumph.

"I'm not picking up any more traces of demons in this immediate area!" Lancar announced as he looked into the screen of his quad scanner. "We might have really got them all… no…w…wait just a minute…"

"What's wrong?" Peppita asked as Lancar's face suddenly turned serious. "You look like as if you've seen a ghost!"

"I've picked up a strong energy reading coming from the inside of the ruins…" Lancar explained, with an astonished look on his face. "Magnitude… 3? What the hell? No amount of energy that big should exist here on this planet…"

"Perhaps that is our ticket to the Daemoneum." Albel said. "It's probably something they used to arrive on this planet. Let's go in and check it out."

"Alright… but let's all be prepared." Lancar said, picking up Sophia from the ground to go on ahead. "For some reason, I got a bad feeling about this."

* * *

**Chapter 42: Return of the Tyrant**

The group entered the destroyed ruins, making their way through large piles of rubble. They encountered a group of Skeleton knights along the way, who provided no challenge to the group whatsoever. After Farleen took care of all of them using her Starlight spell, they advanced forward, arriving at some sort of a lab.

"A lab?" Lancar wondered. "Why would there be a lab in a place like this…"

"Most of the equipments here are ruined…" Raditz commented. "It looks like there's been an explosion of some sort."

"There's a computer here that is still working!" Reen yelled, as she waved the party over to the computer she was inspecting.

"Let's see… what the?" Lancar muttered in surprise as he read the words on the computer. "This is all written in Terran… but how could anyone on this planet understand or read Terran? All this info is about some kind of weapon development…"

Right at that moment, an energy blast out of nowhere shot towards Lancar, who only narrowly dodged the blast thanks to his advanced Klausian reflexes. Surprised by the ambush attack, everybody turned around quickly in their fighting stance, to see a blonde man with a large gun in his hand standing there.

"Well, well, I should have known…" The mystery man sneered cockily, reloading his gun. "I was wondering where that big spaceship came from… I guess it was you Federation scums! How nice of you to kill all my henchman out there…"

"What?" Lancar yelled, looking back to the mystery man. "What are you talking about? It wasn't you that came in that big ship? Who the hell are you anyway?"

"Who am I? Heh… allow me to introduce myself. I'm the former lord of this planet, Norton." Norton introduced himself. "I had an unfortunate… accident two years ago, but I've been granted a new life… and will soon reclaim this planet as my own once more! Hehehehe!"

"I can feel demonic powers flowing within him!" Reen said, getting ready to fight. "He's not some ordinary human!"

"Hehehe… of course not. I've been granted a second life. After I was defeated two years ago, the demons granted me with unbelievable amounts of power… and I mean GODLY amounts of power… hehehe!"

"So the worm sold his soul to the devil…" Albel sneered. "You spineless scum… I'm going to smash that ugly bug-like face of yours."

"Wait a minute… that line…" Norton commented, staring at the green line around Lancar's neck. "The green lines… that means… you're… YOU'RE A KLAUSIAN!"

"That's right." Lancar confirmed. "I'm a Klausian. And that phase gun you're holding has no effect on us Klausians. I hope you know that."

"Ehe…EHEHEHE!" Norton laughed out loud, slowly pointing his gun towards Lancar and switching on one of the buttons. A bright green rock-like structure could be seen moving within the gun, powering it with massive amounts of energy. "I've got a score to settle with you Klausians… it was one of you bastards that nearly killed me two years ago… and believe me, I've prepared myself this time!"

"That energy…" Lancar commented. "That rock… that can't be… the energy stone?"

"Yes… hehe, luckily I was able to find some energy stones on this planet… who would have thought?" Norton explained, as he shot out a powerful blast which Lancar and others barely dodged. "And the energy generated with this is strong enough to blow even Klausians into smithereens, I hope you know… heheheh!"

"Shit, so that's what the strong energy reaction earlier was…" Lancar muttered, as he quickly got up to fight. "Guys, protect Sophia for me… I'll take care of this one!"

"You have some guts, hehehe… well then, DIE!" Norton yelled out he shot a series of blasts from his powered up phase gun. The blasts were so quick and powerful that all everybody could do is dodge them and run away.

"Damn! Take this!" Raditz yelled, as he charged towards Norton. Norton shot an energy blast from his gun straight at charging Raditz, but the blast simply went through an illusion image of him that he had created. Raditz then reappeared in front of Norton, cutting off his left arm with a quick slash from his sword.

"GYAAA!" Norton cried, as he leaped back in pain with blood squirting from where his arm was cut off. "How… how dare you?"

"You've lost, scumbag!" Raditz yelled. "Give up now, or the next thing that I'll be cutting off will be your head!"

"…Heh…he…HEHEHE!" Norton laughed like a maniac as something slowly grew out from the spot where his arm was cut off. All of a sudden, a new arm shot out from his body, looking good as new.

"What the?" Roger yelled, baffled. "It can regenerate?"

"Hehe… you fools underestimated us Rezerbians' superior regenerative abilities!" Norton sneered. "And thanks to the new powers granted to me from the demons, I can now regenerate within matter of seconds! Hehehe!"

"Bah… it's like a disgusting bug…" Albel cursed. "A maggot indeed…"

"Don't think that I'll be falling for such tricks again!" Norton yelled, as he shot numerous rapid pulse blasts from his gun. Everybody scrambled to dodge the blasts, running out of the room to the open hallway.

"We can't attack it up close…" Peppita said, quickly moving out of the way before getting hit by one of the blasts "We can't get close to him at all!"

"Then we attack from long range!" Farleen yelled, as she started charging up her spell while running. "Let's hit him with all we got!"

"Good idea, Farleen!" Clair agreed, also charging up one of her spells.

"Take this, you scum!" Albel yelled, as he swung his katana downwards powerfully towards Norton. "AIR SLASH!"

"FROZEN DAGGERS!" Peppita yelled as she created two frozen daggers up in the air and shot it towards Norton.

"SEA GATE!" Clair yelled, creating a large tidal wave blast towards where Norton was.

"Hehehe… FOOLS!" Norton taunted as he clicked on another button on his gun. The energy stone within the gun reacted with energy, as the three attacks rapidly homed in on him. The energy stone absorbed all the energy generated from the energy attacks and the spells, as they all harmlessly dissipated in front of Norton. "Waste of energy!"

"Whaaa? Take this!" Farleen yelled, as she let loose with her spell. "ENERGY ARROW!"

"BURST KNUCKLE!" Raditz yelled, creating a massive fireball with his fist and shooting it towards Norton.

"FLARE ORB!" Reen charged her orb in strong fire energy, and then shot it to Norton.

As the three attacks homed in towards Norton, he again pushed the button on his gun, enabling the energy stone to absorb all the attacks like a vacuum.

"He… he can neutralize our spells and energy attacks!" Raditz yelled, dumbfounded. "That energy stone is absorbing everything!"

"Hehe, thanks for all the energy, suckers!" Norton taunted, as his gun slowly charged up in massive energy. "Now I shall use it against you! TAKE THIS!"

Norton then shot a large wave of powerful green energy from his gun, which blasted through everybody and knocked them down to the ground with the powerful impact. Everybody stayed down, all badly hurt.

"Ga…aahhh..." Albel groaned, down in pain. "How can we…"

"Hehe, I'm such a genius… inventing such a powerful weapon like this!" Norton said proudly. "This thing renders me pretty much invincible! Hehe… pretty soon, this planet will become mine once more! After I get rid of all you Federation scums…"

"N…no…" Clair moaned, struggling and failing to get up as Norton started to prepare a final blast to take everybody out for good.

"You guys are all sitting ducks now, hehe." Norton sneered, pointing the gun towards the fallen group. "Don't worry… this time, I'll blow you all to bits in an instant! You won't feel a thing! HEHEHE!"

"FAERIE LIGHT!" A voice suddenly cried out of nowhere, as numerous faeries appeared in the air in a bright light to cover everybody with a warm, holy light. The light magically cured all wounds of the party, enabling them to quickly get back to their feet, good as new.

"What the?" Norton yelled, astonished that everybody had recovered in an instant. "What the hell was that?"

"Who… who was that?" Albel asked, finding it hard to believe himself. The party looked behind them to see Meena, out of breath from running all the way in here and from using the spell.

"Is…everybody ok?" Meena asked, gathering her breath. "I…hope it wasn't too late…"

"Meena?" Raditz yelled, totally surprised at Meena's sudden appearance. "Why are you… why did you come here?"

"Heh? Oh, it must be a kid from that village… I didn't know they had the powers of healing…" Norton muttered. "She reminds me of that punk from two years ago… either way, you're a nuisance… so DIE!" Norton yelled as he suddenly pointed his gun towards Meena, charging it in energy.

"Ahhhh!" Meena cried out loud as she covered herself with her arms. "FLASH!" Meena casted her Flash spell out of defensive instinct, emitting a very bright light towards Norton to blind him.

"Gah…GAHHHH!" Norton yelled as he dropped his gun on the floor, tortured by the bright light. "T…TOO BRIGHT!"

"This… this is our chance!" Lancar yelled. "He dropped his weapon! Clair! Farleen! Take him out, now! He's weak against light!"

"Got it!" Farleen yelled, as she quickly started casting one of her spells. "STAR LIGHT!" A bright star rose to the air, to emit a shining light down towards where Norton was standing.

"LIGHT CROSS!" Clair yelled as she casted her Light Cross spell, sending numerous crosses of flashing light down from the sky towards Norton.

"GAAAAAHHHHH!" Norton cried out even louder as his skin started slowly burning off him. With Norton stunned, Albel and Raditz both took this opportunity to charge towards him, cutting him up into several pieces with their Double Slash/Twin Slash attacks.

"I'll finish him off before he can regenerate!" Lancar yelled, as he charged up for a powerful energy attack. "MAX SHOCKWAVE!" He yelled as he shot a massive energy wave forward from his palms, burning and disintegrating each body part of Norton into nothing.

"How…can…I…I…was… supposed… to…rule…" Norton muttered his last words before burning away for good. "Damn…Klausians…I…hate…you…"

* * *

**Chapter 43: The Showdown with the King of the Dead**

"Meena…" Clair asked as she went over to Meena, who was kneeling down from exhaustion. "Why… why have you come here?"

"I just wanted to help out everybody…" Meena mumbled. "I had this feeling that you would all get in big trouble… so I wanted to do what I can… to help find Fayt…"

"Does Niklas know you're here, Meena?" Raditz asked her, helping her up to her feet. "I don't think he would have given you the permission to come along so easily…"

"No… I asked him, the night before you all left… he wouldn't let me…" Meena said, with a look of guilt on her face. "But… sorry… I had to come… I couldn't just sit still… I really wanted to help."

"Well, help you did." Albel said. "I guess we all owe you one."

"Yeah, thank you so much, Meena!" Reen said. "If it wasn't for you, we could have all been killed by now… you saved our lives! Thanks…"

"So what should we do now?" Peppita asked. "We can't just leave Meena here… but we have to go ahead…"

"But we can't just ask her to go back now…" Farleen said. "Remember that big spaceship? We have no idea about what's in there… it could be really dangerous."

"Well, I don't think it's the demons, now that I think about it." Lancar explained. "That Norton guy thought that WE were the ones that came in that ship… since he was the leader of the demons here on this planet, it must mean that it wasn't the demons who were in the ship. He would have known."

"Norton? That was Norton? He was alive?" Meena asked, surprised at who they had just defeated. "I thought Fayt killed him two years ago! He was the one that was ruling over our village at that time…"

"Yeah, so it seems… well, no need to worry, we got rid of him for good this time." Raditz said. "All because of your help, Meena! You're the true hero here… you should be proud of yourself!"

"Really? I don't think I did much…" Meena said, embarrassed. "Thanks…"

"I'm still wondering how he was able to get the energy stone…" Lancar said, picking up Norton's souped-up phase gun with energy stone inside. "There are only two known planets in this universe that produces energy stones; Millokenia and Expel… but he said that you can find them here in Vanguard as well? How could that be…"

"Can I take this weapon? It's so cool!" Roger asked, examining the gun. "It was pretty deadly when that Norton guy used it… maybe we can use it as our weapon!"

"We might as well." Lancar said, picking up Sophia from the floor. "Alright… there is a stairway over there to the right of us… it probably lead to even deeper inside the ruins. What should we do about Meena?"

"We can't tell her to go back to the village now…" Clair said. "Let's just take her with us for now. It'll be safer that way… we'll figure out what to do afterwards."

"T…thanks, Miss Clair!" Meena thanks her. "Thank you so much!"

"Let's go." Albel said, walking towards the stairway leading down. "There must be a way to get to the Daemoneum from down there. Move it."

* * *

The group navigated through the dark and complex basement section in Ruins of Coffir for about 10 minutes, running into numerous dead ends along the way. But thanks to Lancar's quad scanner, they finally found a correct pathway to go through. 

"This hallway should lead us to the innermost area of the ruins." Lancar told everybody. "I'm picking up a strange energy reading too… it's caused by space-time disturbance… that can be the portal to the Daemoneum!"

"The _'Eye of the Truth'_ is glowing faintly, too!" Raditz said, looking at the orb. "This should be it!"

As Clair was about to say something, she was interrupted by a soft, gentle, but chilling voice that echoed throughout the dungeon. Everybody stopped dead on their tracks; with the exception of Meena, everybody had recognized the voice. They have heard it before.

"Heh heh. So you have decided to come to us, instead." The familiar voice said. "It saves me a whole lot of trouble. Well, too bad that fool Norton couldn't do the job earlier… I should have known not to have so much faith in a mortal… he was a failure just like that boy."

"That… that can't be!" Clair yelled. "He's…he's alive?"

"What…h…how!" Albel also yelled, feeling a chill going down his spine. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Yes, I'm alive, unfortunately for all of you." The voice replied, as Romero appeared out of thin air to greet the group. "Your friend back at the spaceship caused quite a commotion up there few days ago, slowing down our progress. I would have never thought he would do such a thing as blowing up his own ship…"

"H… how can they be alive?" Lancar asked, trembling a bit. "How can they survive such a blast… how could they survive out in space… you mean that Cliff's sacrifice was… all in vain?"

"I was pretty surprised, myself." Romero explained, with an amused look on his face. "For a moment, I thought I would perish as well. But it seems that our _'gift of god'_ have granted us with power and abilities beyond our imagination… we survived the blast and navigated through space without a single scratch. Yes, so it seems that fool did die a useless death… Hahaha!"

"You… YOU BASTARD!" Roger yelled furiously, aiming the phase gun he received moments ago towards Romero. "You're not going to get away with this! I'm gonna kill you! I'm going to avenge Cliff's death!"

"You'll get your chance in a moment…" Romero said, as he looked towards Meena and examined her with great interest. "Hooooah… so I see that a Nedian has joined your group since that time…"

"Ne…dian?" Meena asked while hiding behind Lancar, frightened by Romero. "What does that mean?"

"I thought they were all wiped out hundreds of years ago…" Romero explained. "I guess there were a few survivors."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lancar asked, protecting both Sophia and Meena.

"She should pose no real threat to me anyways… her powers are not even close to those of the Ten Wise Man… but she could become a nuisance with her healing powers." Romero said as he slowly raised his finger towards where Lancar and Meena were standing. "Might as well get rid of her now, and save some trouble."

At that moment, Romero fired two lightning-quick beams towards Lancar and Meena. The beam hit both of them before they could react, turning them into solid stone statues almost instantly.

"Lancar! Meena!" Clair yelled as she rushed over to them to help.

"And now to complete my main mission…" Romero said as he lifted Sophia who was unconscious in Lancar's arms with gravitational energy. After a few seconds, Romero created a small black vortex above her, which sucked Sophia in and disappeared into thin air.

"S…Sophia!" Peppita yelled, devastated at Sophia disappearing so suddenly. "W…where did she go?"

"Heh, that makes two out of the three main missions completed so far." Romero said, looking very pleased. "Now all we need is the orb."

"The orb?" Clair asked, getting a suspiciously bad feeling about what he had just said.

"That should be easy enough. It's a matter of time before this dimension becomes ours. Now…" Romero said, as the Demon Sword Levantine suddenly appeared in his hand. "It's time to finish our unfinished battle. I, Romero, the King of the Dead, shall end all of your lives for good. I won't let you escape this time around."

"DISPEL!" Clair yelled, as she used Dispel on Lancar and Meena to bring them back from petrification. However, the spell had absolutely no effect.

"Your spells are no use. They will stay that way forever." Romero sneered. "You should be thanking me for making their deaths as painless as possible. Heh."

"GWAAA!" Albel yelled as he charged at Romero while swinging his katana furiously in rage. However, as with previous battle with him, the attacks simply went right through his body, not doing any sort of damage.

"Stupid mortals…" Romero muttered, as he easily blasted Albel away with an energy bolt that came out from a swipe of his Levantine. "Do you fools just not learn?"

Raditz and Clair both promptly lunged at Romero from opposite sides for a pincer attack, but both swung at thin air as usual. Romero then swung his Levantine in a huge arc, knocking them both down with the energy blast so simply that it was as if he was only swatting at couple of flies.

"T…TAKE THIS! THIS ONE IS FOR CLIFF!" Roger yelled, as he shot a large wave of energy from Norton's phase gun he was holding. The energy wave shot right at Romero, exploding spectacularly and shaking the inner ruins violently.

"That was what Norton was using?" Romero sneered, emerging out from the smoke without a scratch. "How pathetic. It's no wonder he lost."

"T…that was on full power…" Roger muttered, shaking with fear. "How can he possibly survive that…?"

"HIYAA!" Peppita yelled, shooting an invisible ball of energy towards Romero. Romero simply swiped at Peppita's Instanto Blast with his sword as if he was hitting a baseball, hitting it back at both Peppita and Roger and blasting them both back in pain.

'_Why…why can't we hit him?'_ Farleen wondered, as she was running away to dodge Romero's energy waves from his sword. _'It's as if he's not even there…if he was solid, then we would be able to hit him… wait a minute… THAT'S IT!'_

"Take this, you evil demon!" Farleen yelled, as she started chanting one of her spells. "DEEP FREEZE!" Her Deep Freeze spell smothered Romero in cold arctic air, slowly freezing it into a huge ice block.

"That's it!" Reen yelled, as she also charged her orbs in ice energy. "I'll help! NORTHERN CROSS!" Reen made a cross-like formation with 5 of her orbs, which shot out a powerful ice blast towards Romero. It combined with Farleen's Deep Freeze attack, encasing Romero inside a huge ice block.

"We trapped it! We got it!" Farleen yelled. "Now let's shatter him in pieces!"

However, before others could advance towards the huge ice block to shatter it, Romero simply walked out of the ice block as if he was a ghost.

"Good theory… I must admit." Romero sneered. "But I'm afraid it simply just won't work like that. Heh."

"…We can't even freeze him…?" Farleen yelped, as she dropped to her knees, totally hopeless. "So there's nothing we can do?"

"All you can do is… await your deaths!" Romero yelled, as he raised his Levantine high in the air to surround himself in massive amounts of void energy. "DIMENSION…DOOR!" He suddenly disappeared, reappearing in front of everybody a second later to deliver a devastating slash of void energy. The slash knocked everybody down, just like their first fight at the Daemoneum.

"Ga…gaah…" Albel groaned as he slowly got up, refusing to give up.

"Heh, you sure are all pesky, like bunch of stubborn cockroaches… you just all refuse to die..." Romero sneered, as he charged his sword up for another Dimension Door attack. "But let's see how long you can all hold up! DIMENSION…"

Right at that critical moment, a plasma blast came out of nowhere to hit Romero squarely in the middle of the chest. "GWAAA!" Romero yelled in pain as he was knocked back from the surprise attack that was actually able to HIT him.

"W…what?" Albel muttered, surprised that Romero was actually precisely hit for the first time by an attack. "How the hell?"

"Ga…gaaahh…." Romero groaned as he struggled in getting back up to his feet. "Im…impossible… how could I… possibly be… hit?"

"Sorry I'm late, everyone." A female voice said, as a slender young woman with long Blue hair suddenly emerged from the dark, holding her plasma gun.

"That voice!" Roger yelled, recognizing the familiar voice.

"Indeed… I knew the women was still alive." Albel said, with a slight grin.

"M…Miss Maria?" Peppita asked as Maria stepped towards everybody to cure them all slightly with her healing spell. "It's really you!"

"Long time no see, all of you." Maria said, not taking her eyes off Romero as she quickly reloaded her gun. "Actually, I see few new faces as well. But let's save all the catching up and introductions for later; we still have some business to take care of."

"H…how did you just hit him?" Raditz asked, dumbfounded. "This whole time, we couldn't hit him with anything at all… and then you show up to nail him with only one attack!"

"I'll explain everything in detail afterwards." Maria said. "All you need to know for now is that since I'm now here with you guys, their so-called _'gift of god'_ is no longer in effect. You can all now freely hit him with your attacks."

"It's… it's you!" Romero yelled, clutching his chest that was damaged from Maria's Aiming Device attack. "You're the one that escaped the Time and Space Lab a while ago… I have no idea how you managed to escape that time, but nonetheless… I've found you now… I shall kill you with all the rest of the mortals here!"

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." Maria said, pointing her gun towards Romero. "With my powers now in effect, everyone can now hurt you at will. Let's see how well you do in a FAIR fight!"

"I…I have no idea how you were able to bypass my _'gift of god'_…" Romero yelled as he charged up his Levantine sword in fire, noticeably shaken up from the sudden turn of events. "But it doesn't matter… you mortals are… still no match for me!"

"Heh, looks like this scum is now trembling in fear." Albel taunted, now confidently walking towards Romero to fight him. "What happened to all the confidence you had before? Huh? Mr. 'King of the Dead'? How pathetic…"

"What did you say? How dare you… you lowly mortal… GWAAA!" Romero yelled as he uncharacteristically lost his composure, charging towards Albel with his sword covered in flames. "CRIMSON SWORD!" He called as he let loose a fiery slash at Albel. Albel blocked the attack with his katana, as the two struggled with their weapons pitted against each other. After a few seconds, Albel was finally able to push him away, sending him staggering back.

"Heh, just as I thought. In a fair fight, you're nothing to be afraid of." Albel sneered, with a confident grin. "Bring it on, maggot!"

"Bah… how dare you mortals…" Romero cursed, as he barely dodged the symbology attacks from Farleen as well as the Frozen Daggers attack from Peppita. "You think… you're on the same level as me?"

"BURST KNUCKLES!" Raditz yelled from behind him, as he blasted Romero with his Burst Knuckles attack, sending him staggering back from the impact. "You're right… actually, I don't think we're at your level…" Raditz claimed. "We probably have already surpassed it! At least with all of us fighting together, you're not going to beat us!"

"Who…WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Romero yelled, losing his composure and charging his Levantine in massive amounts of dark energy. "SWORD OF DARKNESS!" He yelled, as he sent scattering blasts of dark energy towards all the fighters. It hit all of the fighters fiercely, knocking them down to the floor.

"Be…be careful…" Clair said, as she struggled to get back up. "Even without that protection… he's still very strong…"

"Hahaha! You fools actually thought that you could stand up to my powers?" Romero taunted, as he gathered more dark energy in his Levantine held high over his head. "DIMENSION…DOOR!"

Right before Romero could teleport, Maria shot out a large photon blast from her gun while yelling "PHOTON PRISON!" The large photon ball immobilized Romero right where he was standing, preventing him from using his attack. "This is your chance, everyone!" Maria yelled. "Hit him with all you got!"

"HOLY ORB!" Reen cried out as her orbs charged in holy energy rose high above in the air, descending down and engulfing the Demon with its purifying light.

"GWAAA!" Romero screamed in pain, as his demon skin started burning from the bright holy energy.

"This is for Cliff! Take this! AXE FURY!" Roger yelled, as he repeatedly tossed his axes towards staggering Romero to hit him 6 times in total. The sharp blades of the axes chopped right into Romero's flesh, creating numerous damaging cuts in his body.

"MIRROR SLICE!" Clair yelled as she lunged towards Romero, delivering a series of 8 smooth, powerful and precise slashes across his body. Not to be outdone, Albel appeared from behind him, slashing at him continuously while yelling "DOUBLE SLASH OF FURY!"

Having been gruesomely cut up all over his body, Romero staggered slowly in one spot, about to drop to the floor any second. "To…lose…to…mortals…" Romero muttered. "How…humiliating…"

"It's time to finish him off…" Maria said, as she raised the energy output on her gun to the max and pointed it towards Romero. "ENERGY BURST!" The massive burst of energy shot towards already defeated Romero, slowly melting him away.

_"But…my…mission…is…complete…"_ Romero muttered his last words, before being disintegrated away completely. _"Demons…will…thrive…GAAAHHHH!"_

Maria's Energy Burst attack disintegrated Romero completely, without leaving even a speck of dust behind.

"We got him!" Albel yelled, in a rare burst of joyous emotion for him. "We finally got that son of a bitch!"

Right at that moment, both Lancar and Meena turned back to normal, returning from their petrified state.

"Wh…what happened?" Meena asked, dazed. "I saw a bright light from that scary demon, and…"

"Huh?" Lancar blurted, completely oblivious of what was going on.

"They've returned to normal!" Clair announced in relief, as he went to embrace them. "How are you two? You two were petrified… do you feel alright?"

"Yeah… I'm fine… what just happened? Where's that demon?" Lancar also asked as he turned back only to see Maria standing there, totally surprising him. "M…MARIA? Is that you? How can you be here?"

"Yes, it's me… good to see you again, Lancar!" Maria replied with a smile, turning back to rest of the group. "Alright… I guess there are lots of things we have to talk about… let's all catch up on everything we need to know."

* * *

**Chapter 44: The True story**

"First, let me introduce myself to my new comrades." Maria said, turning to Raditz, Reen, and Meena. "My name is Maria Traydor, from Earth. Nice to meet you all."

"My name's Raditz Farrence!" Raditz greeted her. "I've heard the minor details about your story before… you're the former comrade of Albel, Lancar and the rest, right? I'm pleased to finally meet you in person!"

"Yeah, we're glad you could make it here safe!" Reen said, also introducing herself. "My name is Reen Silvermoon! Raditz and I are both from Roak. I've heard you're the former leader of Lancar's group? That's amazing… it's a real honour to meet you!"

"Um… my name is Meena…" Meena said. "I don't know anything about you, and I don't know what's going on, but thank you for saving us…"

"That's right…" Lancar said. "Meena's from Vanguard. We haven't told her anything yet, because of the UP3."

"It's alright… its no use hiding anymore." Maria said, flicking her hair back. "She's already involved in this, anyway."

"Farleen and I did not see you for that long two years ago, but it's nice to meet you once again, Maria." Clair said, with a bow. "We're really glad you're safe."

"Likewise, Clair… and Farleen. It's a pleasure to meet you two once again."

"Alright, that's enough for introductions." Albel butted in, getting impatient. "You have a lot of explaining to do, woman. Where were you this whole time, and how the hell did you enable us to defeat that demon just now?"

"Nice to see you too, Albel. I see you haven't changed one bit." Maria replied, with a slight grin. "Alright, then, I'll explain my entire story. Two months ago, I was the first one to be captured by the demons."

"You were captured too?" Lancar asked. "Then how can you be here, now?"

"I escaped, of course." Maria continued. "But after I was captured by the demons, they performed many genetic experiments on me at a highly advanced facility located in the Daemoneum, called the Time and Space Lab."

"Time and Space Lab?" Albel asked. "That's the place we've been trying to enter. So is that where their leader is located?"

"It seems so. That is their main base, and it's the place where they do their experiments…" Maria said, her head sinking down a bit in sadness. "I had once again become a guinea pig for genetic experiments… I'll… I'll never forgive them."

"I'm really sorry, Miss Maria…" Peppita consoled her. "That must have been horrible…"

"Anyhow…" Maria continued. "Through many experiments, they were able to obtain my DNA patterns and symbological data, successfully reproducing my genes of 'Alteration'. One day, thanks to the loose security, I was able to escape the lab, but it was too late… They were able to obtain my genes. I suspect that they have done the same with Fayt."

"Your… your genes?" Albel asked. "So are you telling me that…"

"Yes. From what I know, three demons were embedded with my genes of 'Alteration'; the one we fought just now was one of them. And from my observation, I believe that they have been embedded with Fayt's 'Destruction' gene as well."

"So somebody performed genetic experiments on you and Fayt… to perform genetic experiments on the demons?" Lancar asked, confused. "That's seriously screwed up!"

"Yes. Thanks to their newly acquired powers, which they like to call _'gift of god'_, those demons were able to manipulate the properties of their own bodies. This allowed them to obtain the physical properties similar to those of the 4D beings... that is why you all could not hurt them until now."

"That explains everything." Albel said, as things finally became clear.

"But Maria, if they had the physical properties similar to the 4D beings, how were you able to manipulate them so that we could hit them?" Lancar asked. "Can't we do that unless both you AND Fayt are here? We would need his 'destruction gene'…"

"This is a slightly different case." Maria explained. "Although they may have the properties of the 4D beings, they are still living creatures here within the Eternal Sphere. Any structural elements here in this dimension, I can manipulate. So in this case, you could say that I re-materialized them into properties of this dimension."

"That's confusing…" Roger muttered. "But whatever Miss Maria says!"

"So what is their ultimate purpose?" Albel asked. "Why did they want your genes, and why did they take Sophia?"

"That I cannot say for sure, either." Maria said. "Since all connections to 4D space are now gone, I can only suspect that they wanted to use our powers to conquer our dimension…"

"Um… pardon me…" Raditz interrupted, scratching his head. "Sorry, but I've somehow got lost in there somewhere… genes? Alteration? Destruction? 4D? What is all this about?"

"Yeah, sorry… but all this is all really confusing…" Reen agreed, indeed looking VERY confused. "Can somebody explain it to us?"

"Same here! Tell me! Please?" Meena also asked.

"You do not know of our story from 2 years ago?" Maria asked. "I assumed that you all knew already. Sorry about that."

"Well, I've been hiding it from them, thinking that it was unnecessary, but… I guess we have no choice now…" Lancar said. "Alright… I'll explain it all to you guys. It might all be hard to believe, though. So listen carefully…"

* * *

Lancar explained the story to Raditz, Reen, and Meena. He explained the existence of the 4D beings, the origins of each of the genes, the events at Elicoor II two years ago, and how they defeated Luther to save the Eternal Sphere. Raditz and Reen were dumbfounded, but understood everything. Meena was a different story, as she was from an underdeveloped planet; she still couldn't understand much at all. 

"So… you were the ones who saved the universe two years ago?" Raditz asked, stunned. "That is… that's amazing… I always knew there was something different about all of you, but I would have never imagined anything like this."

"Wait, so are you saying we're all just DATA?" Reen asked, flabbergasted. "We're nothing but… programs?"

"I'm sorry… I can't understand anything…" Meena said, more confused than ever.

"No, we're all real. And this is our own world now! All connections between our dimension and 4D space are cut off." Peppita explained. "And sorry, Meena… but we really can't explain it any better…"

"Well, it certainly answers a lot of questions, though." Raditz said, glad that he has found out the truth of the universe. "It all makes sense… and it makes me even more proud that my comrades are ones that saved this universe! You have no idea how honoured I feel to travel with you all now, hehe…"

"Yeah, it's really complicating, but I think I understand!" Reen agreed, with a smile. "And after everything that has happened, I have no choice but to believe you guys!"

"Alright, now that they know everything…" Albel said, turning back to Maria. "So how were you able to escape back to our dimension, and make it all the way here?"

"Alright… after I escaped from the lab, I found a portal which enabled me to travel back to our dimension from the Daemoneum. I ran into couple of demons, of course, but I managed to fight them off and enter the portal." Maria explained. "But I had no idea where the portal lead to… After couple days in the new world, I found out that I had arrived at Planet Edifice."

"So THAT'S how you ended up there." Lancar said. "We spotted you at that planet, so we went over there to look for ya… but by that time, the planet was already destroyed."

"Yes, that's why the demons started attacking Edifice, it was mainly in search for me…" Maria continued. "Before they could destroy the whole planet, I was able to encounter few native Edifians who were living underwater. They lead me to a huge interspace elevator called Ex-Trokia, which allowed me to travel to a technologically advanced base in the outer space called the Grand Knott."

"A space base? In a underdeveloped planet?" Lancar asked. "How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure of everything myself, but it seems that Edifice was also a technologically advanced planet sometime in the past. It was what was remaining of their ancient civilization." Maria explained. "After I arrived in Grand Knott, I discovered that it could also function as a spaceship. By tracking the transmission signal, I was able to locate the Diplo around the orbits of Vanguard, so I came here to look for you guys. But the ship ran out of fuel on the way, and I was forced make a crash landing. Sorry about the earthquake I caused."

"That was YOUR spaceship? The huge one that crashed here earlier?" Lancar asked. "Gee, who would have thought? I thought it was just bunch of demons or something like that."

"Yes… oh, by the time I arrived at the orbits of Vanguard, the Diplo was nowhere to be seen for some reason…" Maria said. "Where did it leave to?"

"…" Everybody fell silent, except for Meena and Maria.

"I guess I have to tell you… man… I hate doing this…" Lancar muttered, with a grim face. "Maria, I'm sorry I have to be the bearer this tragic news…"

Lancar explained what happened at the Diplo slowly, breaking the news of Cliff's death to her. Maria's face became pale, as her head dropped down in mourning of this unexpected tragedy. Peppita, Roger, Clair, and others went over to Maria, to console her.

"Cliff… I can't believe it…" Maria spoke softly, tears welling up in her eyes. "Only… only if I had arrived earlier…"

"It's alright, Maria." Lancar said in a low voice, trying to console her. "It's not your fault."

"So he sacrificed himself to save your lives…" Maria said, wiping away the tear from her eyes before raising her head straight back up in determination. "That was very typical of him. Alright then… we can't let Cliff's sacrifice go to waste… since I've now explained everything, let's go on ahead. We need to enter the Time and Space Lab."

"Maria…" Clair said, feeling really sad for Maria. "Yes… we should go."

"…We suspect that there is a portal to the Daemoneum just up ahead of this hallway." Albel told Maria, trying his best not to sound too rude. "Shall we get going?"

"Yes. Everybody, let's go." Maria said, as she walked on ahead of everyone else. "There's not a moment to lose."

"Poor Maria… she always tries to act so tough" Lancar muttered quietly. "But this news must have been really devastating... Cliff was like a father to her… I feel so bad for her."

"…" Albel stayed silent, thinking of how he felt when his father had died. He had felt the same way when _Simone_ died, although he still couldn't understand why. Either way, he could truly feel for Maria.

* * *

The group advanced down to the innermost area of the Ruins, arriving at a big room with an altar-like structure at the back. The group noticed that the 'Eye of the Truth' was now glowing brightly, reacting to the altar. 

"This must be the entrance." Albel said. "Prepare yourselves."

Just before the group could get to the Altar, they saw a white-faced demon with a black robe and a red cape stepping out from the back, with a long spear in his hand.

"Bah, another demon?" Albel yelled, as everybody went into their fighting stance to get ready for battle. "Get out of our way, scum, before we waste you like all of the others!"

"…" The white-faced demon simply stared down towards the group, not looking particularly aggressive or wanting to fight.

"W…wait a minute…" Raditz said, as he noticed that there was something familiar about the demon. "I've…I've seen this one before!"

"Is that…" Lancar said, staring down at the familiar figure.

"T…that's right!" Reen agreed. "That's the same demon we fought at Mt. Metox!"

"Err… man, I told you guys we should have killed him when we had the chance!" Roger complained. "Now we have to fight him again!"

"…I have no desire to get in your way. If you want to enter the Daemoneum, go right ahead." Jeiuce said. "But if it's a fight you're looking for, then I don't have a problem with that, either."

"What?" Raditz yelled, baffled that Jeiuce didn't want to fight.

"But if it's the Time and Space Lab you're looking to enter…" Jeiuce continued. "Then you're wasting your time anyway. The entrance to the lab has been completely sealed. Nobody, including us demons, can get in."

"The entrance to the lab is sealed?" Maria asked. "Why are you telling us all this? Don't you need to stop us from entering your dimension?"

"I'm letting you go, because I can't be bothered. I refuse to cooperate with those fools any longer." Jeiuce said, looking towards Raditz. "Like that boy said the last time we met, most of us demons have forgotten about our integrity. We have lost it all. We're are all following Asmodeus' orders blindingly… they don't even know what's going on. They don't even know the purpose of this whole operation."

"Did you say… Asmodeus?" Raditz asked. "As in… the Demon King Asmodeus?"

"That's right." Jeiuce answered. "He has come back to life, and is now in charge of leading the army along with Saphiro. But even those two fools don't even know of that man's true intention."

"That man?" Maria asked. "Who is this person?"

"Nobody knows. He's the one who granted Asmodeus, Saphiro, and Romero with the _'gift of god'_. I do not know who he is, or what his true purpose is." Jeiuce explained. "All I know is that he's the one behind it all. Asmodeus is merely a puppet."

"He must be the one who is in charge of the lab…" Maria said. "Who can this man be?"

"Either way, you're wasting your time if you are thinking of entering the Time and Space Lab from the Daemoneum." Jeiuce said. "The lab is sealed, and the final operation will soon begin."

"The final operation?" Albel asked.

"They got the boy, and the girl. The final thing they are looking for is the orb." Jeiuce said.

'…_Hand me the orb…'_ The voice of Saphiro from 10 years ago suddenly echoed in Albel's mind. Was this the same orb that Saphiro wanted back then?

"Where is this orb located?" Albel asked hastily. "In which planet?"

"It's at a planet called Elicoor II." Jeiuce replied. "Most of our forces around the universe are to relocate to that planet in matter of days, for the final operation."

"T…that's our planet!" Farleen yelled in concern. "Then what they're looking for must be…"

"The Sacred Orb!" Clair yelled. "NO!"

"We have to get there, quick!" Maria said. "We can't let them get their hands on it!"

"But how can we go back to Elicoor II?" Peppita asked. "Our shuttle was destroyed, and Miss Maria said her spaceship ran out of fuel, right?"

"Perhaps we can enter it from the Daemoneum. It has portals to all the planets around the universe." Maria said, turning to Jeiuce to ask. "Would you know where the portal is located?"

"I do, but it won't do you any good even if you tried to access it." Jeiuce explained. "Most of our forces are now concentrated around that portal. You can try… but it'll be suicide. They'll outnumber you greatly… you stand no chance."

"Let's get out of here for now, then." Maria said, turning back to head out of the Ruins. "I'll see what I can do with the Grand Knott… it's out of fuel, but… either way, it's no good to enter the Daemoneum now."

"We're out of here, then." Albel agreed, as the party followed him and Maria towards to the exit. "We have to hurry. We can't let those scums get their hands on the Orb."

"Hold it right there!" Jeiuce yelled from behind them, stopping everybody cold. "Now it's my turn to ask you some questions."

"Huh?" Maria asked. "What might these questions be?"

"First of all… are you the ones who just defeated Romero just a moment ago?" Jeiuce asked. "You were able to defeat him even though he had his _'gift of god'_?"

"That's right." Raditz answered. "We killed him."

"One more question." Jeiuce asked, as he advanced towards the group. "What is your purpose? Do you plan on eventually destroying the Daemoneum as well?"

"Our purpose is to save our dimension from the aggression of the demons. That's all" Maria replied. "We are not concerned about the Daemoneum. There is no reason for us to invade your land at all."

"I see." Jeiuce said. "If that's the case, then I have a request. I would like to join you in your quest."

"WHAT?" Roger yelled. "But... you're a demon!"

"Eh?" Albel retorted. "A scum like you, want to join us? For what?"

"If you were able to defeat Romero just a moment ago, then you might stand a chance in defeating Asmodeus, Saphiro and others." Jeiuce said. "I no longer want to see all my fellow demons die useless deaths. All they are doing is using us for their own intentions, and not for all of us. I wish to overthrow those tyrants, for the better of both of our dimensions."

"I see…" Lancar said. "But can we trust you? You're one of the demons, after all…"

"This is about integrity. I have absolutely no reason to lie to you, but it's your choice." Jeiuce replied. "I'm just offering my help. Take it or leave it."

"I think we can trust him." Raditz said. "He's changed a lot since the last time we fought him… and I think he's sincere in his request."

"I agree." Maria agreed with Raditz. "He would not have told us about all the information otherwise. Besides, I have a feeling that we will need his help to enter the Time and Space Lab again."

"What do you think, Albel?" Clair asked Albel.

"…Let him join." Albel said. "He might prove to be useful. And if he just happens to betray us, then I'll kill him. Simple as that."

"Alright then, it's decided. Welcome to the group." Maria said. "By the way, we do not know your name."

"The name's Jeiuce." Jeiuce told her. "You all might want to get out of here quick. The operation may begin at any time."

"Let's hurry then!" Raditz yelled, as everybody ran hurried towards the exit of the Ruins.

* * *

As the group arrived back out to the outer areas of the Ruins of Coffir, Lancar turned to Maria to ask her a question. 

"So, Maria… how do you plan to fuel that big spaceship?" Lancar asked. "I'm guessing that it would need enormous amounts of power…"

"I honestly don't know…" Maria said, "It does require enormous amounts of energy to fly… and I don't think we can find a source anywhere on this planet… even that energy stone we found in that gun wouldn't be enough."

"Shoot…" Reen muttered. "So how can we get out of here?"

At that moment, Lancar heard static and voice coming from the communicator in his pocket. "_…Is… there any…o…ther…?…Lan…Cli…please… respon…"_

"Huh?" Lancar said in surprised voice, reaching back for his communicator. "Who could be trying to contact me?"

"That voice…!" Maria exclaimed, recognizing the familiar voice coming from the communicator.

"This is Lancar Douglas speaking, Federation personnel ID# 22764. Do you read?" Lancar asked over the communicator, as he raised the Antenna on the device as high as he can.

_"L…Lancar? Is that you? It's me! Marietta!"_ Marietta said over the communicator. "_We're all here! Steeg, Lieber, and everybody else! We were all so worried… where are you guys right now?"_

"Marietta? What a pleasant surprise!" Lancar replied, excited to hear from his former crewmate. "We're at Vanguard right now. We found Maria and everybody else… who sent you here, anyway?"

_"Really? You found Maria? That's a relief!"_ Marietta said. "_Mirage sent us here! She was really concerned that we lost contact with the Diplo yesterday… she asked us for our help, so we all volunteered! Anyways, we're glad you're all safe!"_

"What a great timing…" Maria said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I really owe it to Mirage and Marietta this time…"

"When can you be here by? Sorry for sounding so serious already, but we're kind of in a hurry!" Lancar told Marietta over the communicator. "We need to get to Elicoor II as fast as we can! I'll explain everything later."

_"Elicoor II again? That's strange…"_ Marietta said. "_We'll be at Vanguard in about 4 hours! I'll contact you again when we get there, okay?"_

"Alright! We'll wait for you guys at a town then." Lancar told her, as the party made their way back towards Whipple. "Let us know when you get here!"

_"Roger!_ "Marietta complied, as their new Spaceship Lazeria went into the gravitic warp, heading towards the Vanguard system at an unbelievable speed.


	14. Part 14: Chapters 45, 46, 47, 48

**Chapter 45: Spaceship Lazeria**

"Meena, I guess this is where we say goodbye…" Clair told Meena, as the group approached the entrance of Whipple Village. "Thank you for all your help… but things will become even more dangerous from now on. I think it'll be the best for you to stay in this Village…"

"What? N…nooo!" Meena cried, as she objected. "Miss Clair… I don't really understand everything, but I know your journey isn't over yet… and that you still have to rescue Fayt and rest of your friends… so I want to help you all until the end! So can I come with you? Please? Please?"

"Sorry Meena, but this is really serious. Where we're going is no place for kids." Maria explained. "And you shouldn't leave your brother and rest of the villagers behind, either. Clair's right… it would really be the best for you to stay at your village."

"But…but…" Meena mumbled, her eyes getting teary.

"Are you sure she can't come?" Raditz asked. "She's already saved our lives not once, but twice! Her healing powers surpass those of either Clair, Reen, or you, Miss Maria… as long as we protect her, I think she can be of some big help!"

"Well, Raditz does make a good point…" Lancar agreed. "Just because she's a kid, it doesn't necessarily mean that she'll be in everybody's way. I mean, Roger and Peppita both traveled with you guys 2 years ago right? From what Cliff told me, they really helped you guys out a lot!"

"Hey! Don't call me a kid, I was the MAN back then, and I'm the MAN now, too!" Roger objected, very annoyed by the fact that he was called a kid. "Anyways, for the most part, I agree! We shouldn't ignore her powers and potential just because she's a kid!"

"Miss Maria…" Peppita said, as she turned to Maria. "I remember you were against me coming along with you guys two years ago too, right? Because I was a kid…Well, I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but I'd like to think that I was of some help back then! I can understand why Meena wants to come along with us…"

"Well… I guess you're right Peppita…" Maria admitted, after a moment of thought. "I was wrong back then. Both you and Roger ended up being an invaluable part of our group two years ago. And I suppose Meena does have greater healing powers than all of us… so I guess we can let her come along. But only on two conditions…"

"Really?" Meena asked excitedly, happy that she might be able to come along after all. "What are they?"

"Well, first, we need to have everybody's approval…" Maria told her, turning to everybody else in the group. "So will it be okay if Meena comes along, everyone?"

"I think it'll be fine!" Farleen said.

"Yeah, I'm with Farleen!" Reen agreed. "After all the times she saved us, I think we owe it to her!"

"This is not of my concern." Jeiuce muttered. "Do whatever you mortals want."

"Well, I guess if you all put it that way, it's fine with me too." Clair said, turning to Albel. "Albel, what do you think?"

"As long as she doesn't get in our way, she could be useful to us." Albel said, not particularly interested. "Let her come along if she wants to that badly."

"Yay! Thank you so much, everyone!" Meena thanked everybody, happy that everybody accepted her. "So what's the second thing, Miss Maria?"

"I want you to get the permission from your brother." Maria said adamantly. "And this time, you should go along with what he decides. You already worried him enough by running away from home against his wishes. You should go apologize, and then ask for his permission to come along with us."

"Um… okay, I understand!" Meena said, as she turned to her house. "I'll go ask him right now!"

"We'll wait for you at the Inn." Maria told her, as the group entered the town. "Make sure you explain everything to him thoroughly, alright?"

"Okay!" Meena agreed, as she ran towards her house. "I'll be right back!"

"I'll just stay out here by the entrance." Jeiuce told everyone, as he refrained from entering the town. "Needless to say, I don't need to be seen by mortals in this village. It'll just cause unnecessary chaos."

"Alright, we'll be back out to get you in about 3 hours then." Maria told him, as the rest of the group headed towards the Inn. "Let's go rest up for now, everyone."

* * *

"Niklas! Niklas!" Meena yelled as she barged into her house. "I'm home!" 

"MEENA!" Niklas yelled in relief as he ran over to hug her. "Meena, where in the world were you? I was so worried… you're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"Heehee, I'm fine, Niklas, it's okay, you don't need to worry." Meena replied happily, glad to see that his brother was alright after the earthquake as well. "I'll tell you everything that happened… then I want to ask you something…"

"Tell me everything? And you want to ask me something?" Niklas asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

* * *

Three hours later, everybody stood at the front of the Inn, waiting for Meena to come to with an answer. Meena hurried towards them from a distance, with Niklas following slowly behind her. 

"Sorry to make you all wait!" Meena apologized, sounding excited and out of breath. "Niklas said I could go!"

"Really?" Clair asked, a little surprised. "Niklas, is that true?"

"Yes. First of all, I want to thank you for saving our village and freeing us from the Demon threats, as well as Norton." Niklas thanked them humbly. "I've heard from Meena about how she was able to help you in a crucial time of need. If what she said was indeed true, then I would like to give her the permission to accompany you in your quest."

"It's true that she saved us…" Clair confirmed. "But are you sure that it's okay with you?"

"I believe we must do what we can in times of crisis like this. I initially objected her request because I thought she was going to be a nuisance for you all. But if she can indeed aid everybody in saving the world, then I've no objections." Niklas explained. "Also, I do not understand everything exactly, but apparently there is much bigger world out there besides ours. I would like Meena to go out there and see the outside world, or "universe" as you call it. However, I beg of you… please take good care of Meena…"

"I guarantee it. We'll bring her back home safely!" Raditz assured him. "We'll all protect her, don't worry about it!"

"Oh, I have faith in all of you, without a doubt." Niklas said. "I wish everybody the best of luck in this journey."

"Thanks Niklas… I promise I'll come back home safe and sound!" Meena said, giving Niklas a hug. "And I'll tell you lots and lots of stories, okay?"

"Yes. I look forward to it, little sister." Niklas said, returning the hug. "Make sure to stay out of trouble and… be careful."

Suddenly, Lancar heard series of beeps coming from his communicator. Lancar reached back to it immediately to respond.

"Yes. Lancar speaking." Lancar said. "So are you guys here now?"

_"Yeah, we're here! We've just arrived at the orbit of Vanguard III. We're ready to beam you up at any time!"_ Marietta said. _"We're standing by for your orders!"_

"Man, you're making me feel like I'm your Captain or something, cut it out, hahah." Lancar laughed. "Anyways, get ready to beam up 11 people via transport in about 3 minutes."

_"11? Wow, that sure is a big group… that's more people than we expected…"_ Marietta said. "_But understood!"_

"Alright everyone, it's time to go." Maria said, turning to Niklas. "Meena, let's go. Niklas, thank you for everything."

"Farewell, everyone." Niklas said, waving the party good bye as they exited the town. "Take care, Meena!"

As the party walked into the Pesotto forest, they were met by Jeiuce, who had been hiding out behind the trees the whole time.

"I see that your ship has arrived." Jeiuce said. "Let me make something clear… I'm not responsible for any chaos I might cause by boarding your ship. If they attack me, I will not hesitate to kill them."

"Don't worry, I'll explain it to everybody onboard." Lancar assured him, as he turned to his communicator. "Alright Marietta. We're all ready. Beam us up!"

_Roger! Initiating transport sequence!_ Marietta announced, as everybody disappeared in a brilliant blue-white flash, transporting instantly to Spaceship Lazeria.

* * *

The group appeared one by one in the transporter room in Lazeria, and then stepped out of the room to be greeted by many familiar faces from two years ago. Lieber was the first to run in, looking at no one else but Maria. 

"Capt… I mean, MARIA! It's so good to see you again!" Lieber yelled, overcome with joy. "And I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Good to see you too, Lieber!" Maria said, with a smile."It's been a long time. Are Steeg and Marietta at the bridge?"

"Yes, you can all meet up with them shortly." Lieber replied, sort of shrugging that question off. "But how are you, Maria? Are you hurt anywhere? Are you tired? Hungry? If there's anything you need, please say so and I'll be glad to help!"

"Cough Ah, geez… Lieber, I'm here too, you know… all safe and everything. Thank you for ignoring the rest of us." Lancar sneered. "Not that I'm surprised or anything, haha."

"Um, so this is the coward you were talking about at Otanim, Lancar?" Roger asked, little annoyed. "Man, what a wuss. He's more persistent than what you said, though."

"Don't worry. When it comes down to it, he'll choke." Lancar claimed confidently. "He always does."

"How pathetic…" Albel muttered, shaking his head.

"Eh? Oh yeah, there's others…" Lieber said, just coming into his attention that there were other people there. "Welcome to the Spaceship Lazeria, everyone!"

"Heehee… I'm impressed, Miss Maria!" Reen said, looking amused. "You sure have _him_ on a short leash… what's your secret?"

"Huh?" Maria asked, naïve as she always was about the whole issue. "What do you mean?"

"Oh boy, I knew this was gonna happen…" Steeg muttered as him and Marietta walked towards the party to greet them. "Sorry guys. This Lieber here just rushed ahead of all of us as soon as he heard about you-know-who coming."

"Some people just never change, do they?" Marietta said, first looking jealous and then opening up with a smile to greet everyone. "Anyways… Maria, Lancar… and others… it's really nice to see you all again!"

"Marietta! Steeg!" Maria called out as she went to embrace her old 'family' members. "I'm so glad to see you all once again. I missed you all so much."

"Likewise. Y'all haven't changed one bit!" Lancar said. "It feels like old times!"

"So where is… AHHHHHHHHHH!" Marietta suddenly screamed as she spotted Jeiuce in the backgroud, devoid of any emotion. "A DEMON!"

"SHIT, HOW DID IT SNEAK ON BOARD LIKE THAT?" Steeg yelled, reaching back for his Phase gun to attack Jeiuce. "Everybody, TAKE COVER!"

"Maria! Stand behind me!" Lieber yelled, as he rushed over to protect Maria. "I'll protect you with my life!"

"I knew it…" Jeiuce muttered, his head sinking with an 'I told you so' look on his face.

"Wait! Don't fire! Steeg! Marietta! Lieber! Stop it!" Maria yelled. "He's with us! Just calm down!"

"What?" Steeg asked, confused but still pointing the gun towards Jeiuce. "What are you talking about, Maria?"

"She's right… put your guns down." Lancar said, as the three slowly backed off. "Yeah, he's a demon, but he's going to help us. I know it's hard to believe, but let's just go to the conference room first. I'll explain everything there."

"Ooookay then…" Steeg mumbled, as he slowly put his gun away. "Let's go then. The room's just up ahead."

* * *

"So that's what happened…" Steeg said, as Lancar explained the story about how Maria and Jeiuce joined the party. "If that's the case, sorry about all the commotion back there. Jeuice, was it?" 

"It was expected." Jeiuce said. "But by no mean think that this is a peace treaty or anything of that sort. As soon as I overthrow those tyrants, we'll be enemies once again. You mortals and us Demons will never be able to co-exist."

"Um. Gotcha. Just don't destroy anything or freak out any of the crewmembers, k?" Steeg asked, turning back to Maria. "So, what should we do now, Cap… I mean Maria?"

"Well… we know for sure we have to go to Elicoor…" Maria said, looking a bit uncomfortable. "But Steeg, please don't speak that way anymore. Quark disbanded two years ago and I'm no longer the captain."

"Yeah. I guess it's just a habit… but you always did have great leadership skills, Maria." Steeg said. "And that's why we unanimously agreed for you to be our captain back then, remember?"

"That's right. Even Cliff agreed to it!" Marietta agreed, as her face suddenly turned worried. "By the way, where is Cliff? I expected him to be with you guys…"

"…" Everybody fell silent, as the mood suddenly got gloomy. Maria tried to speak, but she was hesitant to break the tragic news to them.

"W…what's with those faces…" Marietta asked, her face suddenly turning pale. "W…was he captured too? Or…"

"Alright, I've already done it once, so I guess I'll do it again…" Lancar spoke in a low voice as he stepped up to break the news to the crew. "Okay… here it goes..."

As Lancar explained the story, Steeg and Lieber both froze speechlessly, shocked at the news of Cliff's death. Marietta buried her face in her hands, crying out softly in grief.

"I… I can't believe it…" Steeg said. "Cliff's… really gone?"

"Cliff…" Lieber muttered as he got up then punched the wall hard in anger. "Those bastards! I'll never forgive them for this!"

"I think it would be the best not to tell Mirage about this…" Steeg said in a low voice. "At least not yet… you know she's going to take this harder than any of us."

"I'll tell her myself after all this is over…" Maria said, wiping away tears from her eyes. "I know this news really hurts, but let's try to focus on our mission for now. Cliff wouldn't want us to be sulking like this. I know it."

"Yeah… Maria's right… let's just do what we can at the moment." Lancar said. "So Steeg, how's the situation in other planets right now?"

"Well, I heard that the number of the demons in each planets have reduced significantly... so I guess that's good news." Steeg explained. "I'm not exactly sure on why, though. It's strange because they were winning most of the battles up until now… why would they suddenly retreat for no reason at all?"

"It's just as Jeiuce said." Clair explained. "I'm sure they are relocating their forces to our planet for their final mission. We need to get there before they can get their hands on the Sacred Orb. How much longer will it be until we arrive?"

"We should be there in about 2 hours." Lieber answered. "We also did a quick check on Elicoor II before we picked you guys up… fortunately there doesn't seem to be any more monster activities than before."

"Reorganizing should take some time." Jeiuce commented. "Saphiro is probably recalling majority of the forces from all the planets in your universe. Still, it's probably the best to get there as soon as possible."

"...I have a question for you, Demon." Albel butted in out of nowhere, to ask Jeiuce about something. "Did Saphiro know of the existence of Sacred Orb before all of this?"

"I wouldn't know anything about that, but it's possible." Jeiuce said. "He's always been in search of greater power, though I cannot confirm anything."

"But he appeared over 10 years ago, killed my father, and burned my arm off!" Albel yelled angrily. "And that scum was looking for that same damn orb back then!"

"Is that so…" Jeiuce said, looking surprised. "Interesting. He was able to enter your dimension even back then? From what I know, the gate to your world had been sealed only until recently. There must have been some demonic presence at the time."

"Demonic presence?" Clair asked. "What do you mean?"

"The mortals on your planet had sealed the gate to the Daemonium many years ago, which meant that we were unable to freely appear in your world any longer." Jeiuce explained. "Usually, we demons can only appear in places containing evil spirits, or other types of demonic presence."

"The Shrine of Kaddan is a holy place…" Clair said. "That explains why he couldn't get to the Sacred Orb directly."

"Demonic presence? What is all this nonsense?" Albel questioned Jeiuce angrily, confused about the situation. "So if this gate our your world was sealed, how is it broken now?"

"The same entity that was able to grant Saphiro and Romero the _'gift of god'_ also broke the seal to your dimension." Jeiuce said. "This allowed any demons to access your world freely, and hence, the mass invasion was possible once again."

"Well it makes sense, I guess." Raditz commented. "I mean, they were only able to invade Roak 700 years ago because we had opened the gate to the Daemoneum ourselves… There hasn't been any Demon Wars since that time. Until now that is."

"Either way, it's clear that they're looking for the Sacred Orb." Clair said. "We need to inform her majesty of the current situation as soon as possible…"

"…" Albel stayed silent for a while, and then lifted his head to make a request to Steeg "As soon as we arrive back at our planet, I want you to send me down to Airyglyph first."

"Airyglyph? What for?" Maria asked. "We should be going to Aquios first. Protecting the Sacred Orb is our main mission."

"It won't be for long. I just want to ask the King and that old man Woltar couple of questions, that's all." Albel explained. "Besides, I have been missing from that planet for quite some time now. I should probably at least let them know that I'm still alive."

"Fair enough. We'll wait for you, then." Maria said. "We'll begin our main mission as soon as you return from Airyglyph."

"I would also like to report back to her majesty first, if I may." Clair requested. "I should inform her of the upcoming invasion as soon as possible, so that my country can make the necessary preparations in regards to defense."

"Good idea. In that case, I'll come with you as well." Maria offered. "I can help you explain everything to her majesty in detail. Besides, you're going to need a contact to come back to the Diplo again, anyway."

"And I can be Albel's contact, if he doesn't mind me coming along." Lancar volunteered, as he turned to Albel. "Is that okay with you?"

"I don't have much of a choice, even if I didn't want you to come…" Albel muttered. "I would eventually have to come back to this ship, so I'm going to need a contact. It might as well be you, I suppose."

"Uh… thanks… I guess." Lancar said, scratching his head.

"Alright then, it's settled. As soon as we arrive back at Elicoor II, Clair and I will go report to Aquios, and Albel and Lancar will go report to Airyglyph." Maria explained. "Everybody else can wait here until we return. We'll plan our next move at that time."

"We still have couple hours to go before we arrive at our destination." Marietta said. "So you should all take this time to rest up… I'll make an announcement over the speakers when we arrive."

* * *

**Chapter 46: Chaos in Space**

Albel was sitting down on a chair in the guestroom of the Spaceship Lazeria, in deep thought while waiting for the arrival of the ship to Elicoor II. Many things were going through his mind, and the moment he heard that the group would have to go back to his own planet, he knew what he wanted to do first. In truth, he didn't really care for reporting back to his kingdom about the current situation or anything like that; before anything else, he wanted to know the truth about himself.

'_Who the hell am I, really? Am I really even from that planet? Who were those people in the picture?'_ Albel kept asking himself, as the questions repeatedly popped into his head, not going away. In truth, Albel had always felt that he was not who he really was. He had always hid it and never mentioned it, but there was always something that he didn't like about himself. There was always something that made him feel different from everyone else, and had always felt that there was something that was always _missing_ for him. His trip to the Daemoneum and meeting with Simone only strengthened those beliefs, and now he was more confused than ever…

Right at that moment, the door slid open as Clair entered the room.

"Albel, is it alright if I come in?" Clair asked. "I'd like to chat for a bit, if that's alright with you…"

"…Do as you like." Albel muttered, still immersed in his own thoughts.

"You know, it hasn't been _that_ long since we've left our own planet…" Clair said. "But it certainly seems like it has been forever. I wonder if everything is okay back in Aquaria and Airyglyph… I can't believe I have to report that there will be another big war in our Planet. It's only been two years."

"The King and the Old man are no fools, and our military is still top class." Albel replied. "And you Aquarians are no slouch, either… they'll at least be able to hold out long enough for us to infiltrate the Daemoneum and kill those scums."

"I'd like to believe that too. I have confidence in both of our forces…" Clair agreed. "But from the way you look, that doesn't seem to be your main concern at the moment. What's wrong?"

"…It's nothing." Albel claimed, still looking spaced out in thought.

"You have another reason for wanting to go to Airyglyph, don't you?" Clair asked. "It's not at all like you to be too concerned about it. Well, I know you are deep inside, but you wouldn't usually request something like that yourself."

"Hah, now I see I'm becoming predictable… how pathetic…" Albel muttered. "I need to go speak to that old man Woltar. There are some questions I would like to ask him."

"You're going to ask him about your past, right?" Clair asked. "Ever since we left Roak, you've been uptight like this. Are you wondering if you might not be from our planet after all?"

"N…nonsense!" Albel retorted. "I just want to ask him about my father! He's the one that knew him the best. He might know something about why those demons wanted to get their hands on the Sacred Orb back then."

"There's also that I suppose. But you're also curious about your own past, right?" Clair questioned him again. "Maybe the answer lies during that time in the past you couldn't remember, when you were really young."

"Don't get me wrong; I don't care about some silly childhood memories. The answer might lie there, but it doesn't mean that I care about it myself." Albel claimed adamantly.

"Haha… it's pretty obvious when you're not telling the truth, too." Clair teased, laughing a little. "Of course you care. It's in our nature to be curious about the mysteries of our past. Frankly, it wouldn't be human to not care about it… especially when it's about your _own _past."

"Bah…" Albel blurted, annoyed and little embarrassed that Clair read right through him. "Think whatever you want…"

Suddenly, the voice of Marietta was heard over the announcement speakers in the room, interrupting their conversation. "_Albel, Clair, we've just arrived at the orbit of Elicoor II. Please meet up with Lancar and Maria at the transportation room."_ Marietta told them over the speakers. "_They'll be waiting for you at the front of the door."_

"Albel…" Clair said, while getting up to leave. "No matter what you find out about yourself… no matter who you actually are, you're still the same Albel to all of us. It won't change a thing. Just remember that."

"…" Albel just stood there, not knowing what to say. It was an obvious and a clichéd statement, but still, it gave him a sense of comfort. He wanted to show his appreciation, but of course, he wasn't good at such things. Even saying a simple thank you was usually hard enough for him. As he hesitated, Clair turned around to say one more thing before leaving.

"Oh… before I forget…" Clair spoke softly as she took Palmira's wishing charm out of her pocket. "I never got a chance to thank you for your present…"

"Huh? Ah…" Albel mumbled, as he just simply looked away. "_That_ thing…"

"It's probably coincidence, but Palmira flowers just happens to be my favourite... I love it." Clair thanked him, bowing to him. "I truly appreciate it, Albel. Thank you very much."

"It… it was just a simple gratitude for healing me at that dungeon. Supposedly you woman like those sort of things." Albel said, a little embarrassed. "So I just got it off some worm off the street. Don't think too much of it…"

"Haha… I see…" Clair laughed it off, knowing perfectly well that Palmira's wishing charm was too rare to get from some 'worm' off the street. "Even so, I still appreciate it. Anyways, we should probably get going now..."

"Right…let's get going." Albel said, following behind her as they left the room. Albel was flustered, as he could clearly tell from Clair's face that she knew that he was making up the story about how he got the charm. Was he just becoming _that _predictable to her? Or was it just simply a case of her knowing him too well? Either way, he was annoyed, but felt a new sense of personal bond to her… something he hasn't felt since his father had passed away.

* * *

After a few minutes, both Albel and Clair arrived at the transporter room, with Maria and Lancar already there waiting for them. 

"So are you two all ready to go?" Maria asked.

"Yes. We're both ready, Maria." Clair replied.

"Alright. We might not have much time, so lets try to come back as soon as possible." Maria said. "Albel, Lancar, please explain everything to his majesty in detail and request for his cooperation in protecting the Sacred Orb. I'm counting on you guys."

"You got it." Lancar said. "Alright, let's move!"

Maria and Clair stepped into the transporter first, disappearing in a flash of blue-white light to transport to Aquios. Albel and Lancar then stepped into the transporter a moment later, transporting to Airyglyph.

* * *

Meanwhile, Raditz, Reen, Peppita, Meena, Farleen and Roger were all relaxing at the lounge of the ship, taking a breather and enjoying the scenery. 

"Wow… everybody, look! There are so many stars out there!" Meena yelled excitedly as she looked out the window, staring at countless number of stars in space. "It's so pretty! It's like night, everywhere!"

"Haha… that's right… Meena's never been out in space before." Raditz said while looking at Reen, with a little chuckle. "This must be pretty exciting for her."

"Space?" Meena asked. "What's that?"

"Well, it's a place which holds many different stars!" Reen explained. "You want to know something cool, Meena? It's hard to explain, but you know all those stars you see at night, right? They're home to many different worlds and people!"

"WOW! Really?" Meena asked curiously. "But then how come they're all so bright? Why do you only see them at night? Can you tell me? Pleeeease?"

"Haha… it'll be pretty hard to explain it to someone as young as you…" Raditz said, scratching his head. "But I can try…"

"You know, now that I think about it, I've been here before, but I still don't get this whole space business either!" Roger said. "Can you explain it to me too sometime?"

"Um, I didn't really get a chance to appreciate this 'space' thing the first time either…" Farleen said. "But now that I think about it, this is all so cool! I've only heard things from Lady Nel… she told me that it's the prettiest thing you'd ever see! I'm so glad I'm getting a chance to see it, too!"

"Then let's bring back Miss Nel here after it's all over!" Peppita said. "So she can enjoy the stars again!"

"Yeah… I really hope she's okay…" Farleen said, turning grim. "I'm just relaxing here, looking at the pretty stars and getting all excited and everything… but we don't even know about how she is doing right now. Fayt too… I feel so guilty now, not being able to do anything so far."

"Don't say that, Farleen!" Reen objected. "You're not being fair to yourself! We tried our best… it wasn't our fault that we couldn't hurt those demons back then… and now that Miss Maria is with us, we'll defeat them for good and rescue your friends soon enough!"

"Exactly. And besides, we couldn't have gotten this far without you, Farleen!" Raditz said. "So don't be so hard on yourself."

"Yeah! Don't worry, I'm sure she's A-OK!" Roger assured her. "Miss Maria was caught and she was able to escape, remember? Miss Nel is really strong, so maybe she escaped already, too! Same with Fayt!"

"Thanks guys…" Farleen said. "I hope we'll get to rescue them soon."

"Don't worry, we'll beat those demons this time around." Raditz said, with a determined look on his face. "I'll make sure of it."

"Wow, you sure look confident!" Roger said, impressed with Raditz's determination.

"Yeah, I feel more motivated now than ever before." Raditz explained. "You know, until now, I was just a spoiled rich kid that ran away from all the responsibilities and problems. I was never really motivated to do anything with my life, until now. This is my chance to follow in my ancestor's footsteps… to save not just my own planet, but also the entire universe! I'm going to protect everything I care about… the people I care about the most… my parents, my friends… and Reen… I'm going to protect them even if it means putting my own life on the line."

"Wow, you say really cool things sometimes, Raditz. I agree with you 100! " Roger said, turning to Peppita to say something to her, with his head slightly down. "Uh…I'll protect Peppita with my life, too!"

"Aww, that was so sweet. Reen, did you hear that?" Peppita asked Reen, touched by Raditz's determination to protect her. "Raditz said he'll protect you with his life!"

'…_She just completely ignored what I just said, right?…'_ Roger asked himself, his head hanging with a sweatdrop. _'Aww man…'_

"Uh… did I just say Reen specifically?" Raditz scratched his head, embarrassed. "Heheh… but yeah… I really mean it. Reen… I'll protect… you."

"Huh? Sorry… were you guys saying something?" Reen asked while turning around, having completely missed everything Raditz had just said. "I was just explaining to Meena and Farleen about all the space stuff…"

"Heh…" Raditz muttered with a sweatdrop, having been ignored by her yet again. "N…never mind."

At that moment, the Spaceship was suddenly rocked hard by a large impact, causing a violent tremor around the ship that knocked everybody down off their feet.

"WHOA!" Raditz yelled, shocked by the sudden impact. "What the hell was that?"

Just as he said that, another impact hit the ship, causing a tremor around the ship again.

"AHHH!" Reen yelled in fear. "What's happening?"

_"We're… we're being attacked!"_ Marietta announced over the speakers in panic. "_Everybody, please take cover…AHHH!"_ She yelled as another impact shook the ship violently.

"We're being attacked?" Raditz asked. "Damn, is it those demons again?"

"Let's get to the bridge!" Peppita said. "I want to know what's going on!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Reen said, as everybody followed her to the bridge.

* * *

When the group arrived at the bridge, they witnessed all of the crewmembers punching in commands to the computer in panic, with the red emergency lights flashing all over the room. 

"S…shit… Marietta, who's attacking us?" Steeg asked, shocked by the unexpected attack. "That came out of nowhere!"

"It's… it's an Expelian fleet!" Marietta said. "There's 7 of them in total… and they have us surrounded! They're armed with top of the line creation cannons… and they're attacking us with full force! Our shield's already down to 70 percent!"

"An Expelian fleet?" Steeg asked, dumbfounded. "Why would they be attacking us?"

"The Demon forces have taken over those ships." Jeiuce told him rather calmly. "I can definitely feel their presence. They're probably guarding the planet against all outside interference."

"Shit!" Raditz cursed. "It's them again?"

"W…what?" Steeg asked, turning back to Marietta to give a command. "Marietta, reroute all the power in the ship to our shields, and enable the escape pods! We're gonna have to bail… we don't stand a chance in a 7-on-1!

"N…negative! That would be suicide!" Marietta yelled. "They have us surrounded, so there is no chance for any of the escape pods to get away safely!"

"Damn, Saphiro beat us to it." Jeiuce cursed, with a disgusted look on his face. "So what's going to happen now, mortals? Are you just going to all sit here and await your deaths?"

"We're surrounded! Attacking would be useless! There's nothing we can do right now but to absorb the impact with our shields…" Steeg said in frustration. "Marietta, did you reroute all the power? How long can we hold out for?"

"I transferred all the available power to our shields, but it's already down to 47 percent!" Marietta announced, as another blast rocked the ship. "We can only hold out for approximately 5 minutes, at best!"

"Shoot, contact the Federation headquarters ASAP through the communicator!" Steeg ordered. "Send a SOS signal… ask for any help that might be available in the area… that's our only hope!"

"R…roger!" Marietta complied. "Contacting Federation Headquarters…"

"Damn…" Raditz muttered. "This can't be it! We can't die here after coming this far…"

* * *

**Chapter 47: The Invasion**

Albel and Lancar appeared just outside the gates of Airyglyph, only to witness a frightening scene; there were bodies of about a dozen Black Brigade soldiers scattered around the snowy field, some of which were horribly disfigured. The blood of the soldiers had seeped through the snow on the ground, dying it crimson red.

"W…what the hell!" Albel yelled, shocked at the sights of many of his soldiers dead on the ground. "Don't tell me that those scums have already began their invasion?"

"Damn… well, that's what it seems like…" Lancar said, looking down at the footprints on the snowy ground. "These footprints are definitely those of demons."

"Bah, those scums!" Albel yelled in disgust, rushing over to one of the soldiers. "Hey you, wake up! Answer me!"

"C…captain…" The soldier muttered with his last breath. "It was…the…demons… and a man with blue…hair…"

Before Albel could ask him any further questions, the soldier's head weakly tilted over sideways, dead.

"Blue hair? Who are you talking about? HEY!" Albel yelled at now-lifeless soldier in frustration. "Shit…"

"It's no use. They're all dead." Lancar said, after he examined around to all the soldiers fallen on the ground. "Let's just head out into the city."

"Hurry up." Albel said, having already rushed towards the city ahead of him. "Damn, how could our army be beaten so easily?"

* * *

As Albel and Lancar ran past the bridge leading to the city entrance, they came across many more lifeless bodies of Black Brigade soldiers. When they arrived at the city, a truly horrific scene greeted them. Countless bodies of civilians and soldiers alike were scattered around the streets in pools of blood, as well as many Air Dragons and Lums. Most of the houses and buildings were destroyed, with fire and smoke emerging from the rooftops. It was like an aftermath of a huge battle; actually, it was more like an aftermath of a small-scale genocide. 

"Damn… this is horrible…" Lancar cursed in disgust. "They've totally destroyed this city… it seems like the battle was pretty one-sided too… I can't even find single body of a demon here!"

"Those bastards… those scums… THEY WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Albel yelled in anger, slashing his katana against a wall. "… We're going to the castle. There still might be some people alive."

"Yeah, let's go to the castle." Lancar agreed, turning towards the castle gates. "I'm sure at least few of the soldiers survived… I hope so, anyway."

They entered the castle, to witness more or less the same scene from before. There were many dead bodies of soldiers scattered around, as well as maids and other servants. Albel rushed up the stairs towards the Throne room, seeing Woltar humped over against the Throne, breathing heavily.

"Woltar!" Albel yelled. "You're still alive!"

"A…Albel?" Woltar struggled to respond back, clutching the large wound on his chest. "So… you've finally come…"

"What the hell happened here?" Albel asked, helping him up and sitting him on the throne. "Who did this? And where is the King?"

"It…it was those demons from before… they have begun a large-scale invasion… I'm sorry to say, boy… even though we were prepared, they were too tough… for this old man to handle… I failed in protecting the city and our people…" Woltar slowly explained, gasping for breath. "His majesty… is not here… he was already at Aquios by the time they invaded… for an important meeting with the Queen of Aquaria."

"He's at Aquios?" Albel asked. "So what the hell did those demons want from us?"

"The…the blue-haired boy… their captain… he wanted the Sacred Orb…" Woltar explained. "I told him… that it wasn't here… and I refused to tell him where it really was, of course… our soldiers tried to fight him, and I did as well… but his powers… were not of this world. He defeated everybody without much effort… alone…"

"Sacred Orb?" Albel yelled. "Damn, I knew it!"

"Who the hell is this blue-haired boy?" Lancar cursed. "The soldier back there at the entrance mentioned him too!"

"His fighting style… was similar to you and your father's, boy…" Woltar told Albel. "But do fear him… his power and skill easily surpasses those of yours or your comrades. It was beyond anything we could imagine…"

"What?" Albel asked, shocked by what Woltar had just said. "He had the similar fighting style? Damn… could it be… someone else from that planet called Roak, then?"

"I…I ordered all of the remaining soldiers in the three brigades to head over to Aquios, to protect his majesty… and the Sacred Orb, at all costs." Woltar explained, as Lancar tried his best to treat his large wound. "You and your comrades… should head over to the Urssa Cave Temple… asealed temple hidden within the deep regions of the Urssa Lava Caves… That's where the Demons were reported to be originating from..."

"Urssa Cave Temple…" Albel said. "Fine. I'll go there, and crush every last one of those scums. I'll make sure they pay for everything that they've done to this city."

"You're Airyglyph's last hope, boy…" Woltar said. "Defeat them… before they destroy the entire world…"

"Alright. But before I go, I have couple more questions I need to ask you…" Albel asked. "What was the whole deal with my father and that demon 10 years ago? And where am I really from? And my father?"

"Hooo… I'm surprised you're asking me… those questions, boy." Woltar said. "I was wondering… if you were ever going to…"

"So you do know, don't you?" Albel asked. "Then tell me everything I need to know about my past."

"I still don't know the truth… about that event from 10 years ago… Glou had never said anything about demons before that time, but it certainly seemed that… he knew about them from sometime before." Woltar explained. "Glou… that man… he just appeared in Airyglyph over 20 years ago, literally out of nowhere… all he had with him was a sword in one hand and you, boy… in the other…"

"20 years ago… when I was 6 years old?" Albel asked, realizing that was the furthest time back he could remember in his head. "Where did he come from?"

"He… Glou… just appeared at the armory tournament held here in the castle… and impressed the King greatly by with his great skills… he won the tournament with such ease that he was immediately offered to become the new Captain of the Dragon Brigade…" Woltar told him. "But he would never tell anybody about where he had come from… not even to me."

"Damn, so even you don't know of his origins…" Albel muttered. "Or mine, for that matter."

"You were… certainly one aggressive little boy…" Woltar told him, his breathing getting heavier. "You never got along with anyone, and you were always disobeying orders. All you would do was just walk around and pick fights with other kids… you were a big headache for all of us, but at the same time, you also possessed the great power and skill that your father had… Your father always trained you hard, every day, so that you would one day follow in his footsteps…"

"…" Albel just listened, remembering how much of a troublemaker he was back then. Even he wasn't sure of why he was acting so aggressively at that time. It had just come naturally to him.

"And he was the one… that originally planned the large-scale invasion of Aquaria that took place two years ago…" Woltar said. "When he first became the captain of the Dragon Brigade, he was relentless about invading Aquaria right from the start… he was very passionate about it... But as the years went by, he scrapped the plan… for some unknown reason. Vox merely resumed that plan… after your father perished…"

"What? Are you serious?" Albel asked, surprised. He didn't know that his father was the one that originally planned the invasion of Aquaria. '_Why did he do that?'_ Albel wondered. '_Could it be because… he wanted the Sacred Orb?'_

"…That's about all I know…" Woltar mumbled, as his voice started becoming weaker. "Now, go boy… you must go defeat the demons… there's not… much time… Aquios… might not hold up… for much longer…"

"He's right…" Lancar said. "Let's head back up to Lazeria then meet up with everyone else… and we'll let the medical crew take care of our old man here."

"No… I don't… have much time left. Forget about… this pathetic old little man… and go…" Woltar said, his voice now very faint. "I have failed… in protecting our country… and this is my just punishment… I have also lived… much too long… regardless…"

"Bah! Stop that, old man!" Albel yelled. "Don't ever say such stupid things!"

"…I believe in you, boy… Albel…" Woltar said with last ounce of strength. "Make Glou proud…. We'll both be watching over you…"

With those words, Woltar simply rested his head back onto the chair, and closed his eyes.

"Shut up! Don't say hopeless crap like that! Hey!" Albel yelled, shaking Woltar with his hands. "SAY SOMETHING!"

There was no more response from Woltar. He was already dead.

"GWAAAAAAA!" Albel yelled in anger, pounding the ground with his fist. Even though Albel never really liked Woltar, he always respected him, and thought of him somewhat as an adoptive father. His loss filled him with much anger and sorrow.

"Albel… I'm sorry…" Lancar said, in a low voice. "He was like a second father to you, right…?"

"… Hah, don't speak such nonsense. This old man was saying stupid things, even in the end… fool…" Albel muttered, his hands trembling. "Enough of this crap. I can't take this bullshit anymore... After we get back to the ship, I'm going to go kill every last one of those scums with my own hand. So hurry up and take me back to the ship."

"Okay, hold on. I'll contact Marietta right now so she can beam us up soon." Lancar said, reaching back for his communicator and putting it towards his mouth to speak into it. "Marietta, we're done. Bring us back up as soon as possible."

_"C…Cannot comply!"_ Marietta replied in panic. "_We're currently being attacked by a group of demon battleships! They have us surrounded! We have our hands full just defending against their attacks… AHHH!"_

"WHAT? They took over more spaceships? Marietta, you alright?" Lancar asked in great concern. "What are you guys planning to do?"

_"We just requested help to the Federation Headquarters…"_ Marietta reported. "_Don't worry; we'll get out of this somehow… sorry, but there is no way we can transport anyone right now…"_

"Damn… no, Marietta, don't worry about us! Just focus on getting out of there anyway you can, alright?" Lancar yelled. "Over and out!"

"What the hell is going on?" Albel asked. "They've taken over more ships, and now they're attacking ours again?"

"Yeah… damn…" Lancar said. "This is all too much… Wait a minute… Clair and Maria both went to Aquios… isn't that where the demon army is heading to next?"

"SHIT!" Albel yelled, concerned about Clair in particular. "They're probably already ran into some those demon scums… let's move out to Aquios at once!"

"But isn't that city on the other end of the continent?" Lancar asked. "How the hell are we going to get there in time now? DAMN! By the time we get there, it might already be too late!"

"Just shut up and follow me, fool." Albel yelled, running down the stairways to the first floor of the castle. "There is another way."

"What? How?" Lancar asked, as he followed Albel down the stairway.

* * *

"Marietta, any report from the Headquarters?" Steeg asked, as the 7 surrounding battleships continuously bombarded the Lazeria out in the orbit of Elicoor II. "And how much time do we have left?" 

"We're still on standby…. the shield's down to 29 percent power!" Marietta announced in panic. "We have to do something before they bring down our shields completely!"

"Shit, where the hell are those Federation people?" Steeg cursed. "We're like a rat in a cage here… there's nothing we can do!"

"Are…are we going to all die?" Meena asked, totally frightened. "Are those ships going to kill us?"

"Don't say that Meena, there's still hope!" Peppita told her. "We'll get out of this!"

"Wait… we just got a response from the headquarters!" Marietta told everybody. "The nearest Federation ship that can help us out… is 1,700,000 kilometers away… it'll take 14 minutes for them to get here… that's way too long! We only got few more minutes before our shields go down completely!"

"No…it can't be…" Reen mumbled, as she fell to her knees. "They were our last hope…"

"Damn! This is all bullshit!" Steeg cursed, hanging his head in despair. "You mean we're gonna have to hope for a miracle, like that time with Maria and the invisible?"

"So are you telling me this is where I die after I decide to join you mortals? Before actually even fighting them?" Jeiuce asked, completely disgusted. "This is indeed truly pathetic..."

"Shield's down to 19 percent… WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!" Marietta yelled hysterically. "Or we're all going to die!"

"Damn, is this really it…" Steeg muttered in despair. "Are we really done for, this time?"

* * *

**Chapter 48: Tragedy in Aquios**

As soon as Clair and Maria transported to outside of Aquios, they were met with the familiar scene that Albel and Lancar saw back in Airyglyph. There were many dead bodies of soldiers scattered around the gate and the bridge, and fire and smoke could be seen emerging from deep within the city itself.

"W…what's happening!" Clair asked, her voice trembling. "They…they've already invaded? It can't be…"

"T…this is bad news…" Maria said, stunned by the horrific scene. "How could this happen? There weren't any new reports of demons showing up on this planet back at the ship…"

Clair looked ahead past the end of the bridge, into the town. She saw a person with short orange hair fighting alone against 6 or 7 other demons.

"Someone's still fighting in there!" Clair brought it to Maria's attention. "We should go help right away!"

"Yes, let's go quickly!" Maria agreed, as both of them ran up the Moonlit bridge as fast as they could. "Maybe we're not too late yet."

"That person… could it be…" Clair asked herself, thinking that the person with short orange hair fighting seemed really familiar to her. "…Tynave?"

* * *

Back in the city, Tynave was surrounded by a group of 6 or 7 demons, trying to distract the demons from progressing further into the castle. She went into her battle stance, to get ready for the upcoming battle. 

"Heh… foolish mortal. We have you surrounded." One demon sneered. "You stand no chance against us. And yet you still want to fight?"

"It's my duty to defend this country, and I won't let a single one of you disgusting demons get past me!" Tynave yelled. "I'll fight to death if it comes down to it! In the name of Apris, I vow to punish you all for your crimes!"

"Hooh… how courageous. Very well, then. We shall end your life right now, as you wish." The demon said, suddenly rushing towards Tynave for an attack. "DIE!"

"SPIRIT ATTACK!" Tynave yelled, as she shot out a round Qigong wave out of her palm towards the rushing demon. The blast hit the demon squarely on the chest, knocking it back in pain.

"H…how dare you!" Another demon yelled, as he ran behind her to hit her with his claw swipe. "TAKE THIS!"

Suddenly, Tynave disappeared in a blur, as the demon's claw swipe only swung at thin air. Tynave then suddenly reappeared above the demon, diving in feet first while yelling "PILLORY!" Her drop kick hit the demon on the back of the head, knocking him down to the ground unconscious.

"S…she's stronger than we thought!" Another demon yelled. "Show her no mercy!"

Tynave parried off the demon attacks as best as she could, but eventually, the sheer number of the demons overwhelmed her. One demon hit her with his claw swipe from behind, knocking Tynave down to the ground in pain. As Tynave struggled to get up, another demon unleashed his firebolt attack, which exploded against her upon impact and knocked her back to a wall. Tynave's body ricocheted off the wall with a sickening thud, and then hit the ground in a heap of smoke.

"I...won't…give up…" Tynave mumbled in pain, as she struggled to get up and failed. "I can't…let you… pass…"

"Not bad… you managed to take out a few of my comrades. I'm impressed." One demon said, charging his hand in massive energy to deal the final blow. "For that, I'll make your death as quick and painless as possible."

"N…no…" Tynave moaned, as she helplessly lied down on the ground, unable to move. "I can't…"

Just before the demon unleashed his attack, Maria yelled "SCATTER BEAM!" as her plasma blast split into 5 to hit all the demons simultaneously and knock them back. Before the demons could regroup, Clair rushed towards the demons to quickly slash through all of them with her twin daggers. Devastated by Clair's lightning-quick attack, the demons all fell to the ground lifelessly.

"Tynave!" Clair yelled, as she rushed over to Tynave to attend to her. "Can you hear me?"

"L…Lady Clair… you've… finally… come…" Tynave said faintly, losing consciousness. "I'm so glad… to see you… safe…"

"HEALING!" Clair yelled, as her healing spell healed Tynave's wounds, allowing her to get back up. "Do you feel better?"

"L…Lady Clair… thank you…" Tynave thanked her, with a bow. "Miss Maria, it's nice to see you again…"

"We'll save all the talk for later." Maria said. "Tynave, can you explain what's going on? When did the demons invade the city?"

"They're…they're trying to infiltrate the Shrine of Kaddan!" Tynave replied, as another urgent issue came into her mind. "That reminds me… we must first hurry to the castle! Sir Adray could be in danger!"

"F…father?" Clair asked, becoming increasingly worried. "He's…he's here, too?"

"He went to fend off rest of the demons that was trying to enter the royal castle!" Tynave yelled, as she ran towards the castle. "We have to go help him, quick!"

"Let's go!" Clair agreed, as her and Maria both quickly followed Tynave to the castle gates. "Father…please be okay…"

* * *

Meanwhile, in space, Marietta tried the best as she could to sustain the defense shields of the Lazeria as long as possible. However, the enemy ships kept firing their creation cannons from all directions, deteriorating the shield's power and threatening to blow them away for good at any moment. 

"The…the shield's down to 5 percent power!" Marietta yelled. "We won't be able to withstand their next attack!"

"It can't be!" Steeg yelled in despair "SHIT!"

One of the enemy ships started charging their creation cannons once more, to blow away Lazeria for good with their next blast. "This… is… it…" Raditz started trembling, helplessly watching their cannon charging up with high amount of energy. "This is the end… DAMN…"

Right before the enemy ship could fire, a green beam of energy came out of nowhere to hit them from behind, exploding upon impact and blowing their ship into pieces.

"W…what?" Steed asked, dumbfounded. "What just happened? Who did that?"

Suddenly, a group of 10-15 oval-shaped spaceships appeared from behind the enemy ships, firing relentlessly and destroying them with powerful green beam-like energy blasts.

"T… this is our chance!" Steeg yelled. "Marietta! Get us out of this pinch!"

"Roger!" Marietta complied, as she quickly maneuvered the Lazeria away from the surrounding enemy ships through the opening created by the mysterious group of spaceships.

"We're safe for now!" Marietta said. "Wait a minute… we got an incoming transmission! It's from those weird looking spaceships that saved us!"

"On Speakers!" Steeg ordered. "This is Captain of the Federation Spaceship Lazeria speaking. Thank you for saving us. Whom might we be speaking to?"

_"We are a fleet from the Kingdom of Greeton; we come from the planet that you are currently orbiting. We have come to assist you in your battle against the demons."_ The Captain of the Greeton fleet told him over the speakers. "_We welcome you to our planet, Klausians. You have our full cooperation, and we ask of yours, as well. We must work together to defeat the demons." _

"Greeton? I've never heard of you guys before, but we really owe you one!" Steeg said. "Yes! You can count on our full cooperation as well. Let's defeat these demon ships together!"

"W…wait a minute!" Raditz asked, baffled. "This is supposed to be an underdeveloped planet! How in the world could they have a fleet of spaceships?"

"Heh, I knew those guys would come back to help us!" Roger said. "Don't underestimate them! Their technology is as sophisticated as you guys!"

"Well, I'm surprised too, but I'm certainly not complaining!" Steeg said, turning to Marietta. "Alright… Marietta, let's help them destroy those ships! Charge up our Creation and Positron cannons, and fire at will when ready!"

"Roger!" Marietta replied, as Lazeria and the Greeton spaceships both fired away at the Demon ships, destroying them one by one.

* * *

Back at Aquios, Clair, Maria, and Tynave arrived at the gates of the castle, only to see Adray limped back against the wall, seriously injured. A familiar figure was standing over him; he had a pale face, and a black cape, almost identical to how Romero looked. 

"Heh, so this is the best you got?" The Archdemon sneered at fallen Adray. "If you're the strongest they have to offer, then other mortals on this planet must be pathetically weak. I'm disappointed."

"…I'm done for. I've lost." Adray muttered, barely moving. "It's finally the time to meet my end…now, finish me off, demon..."

"At least you're honourable in defeat. Very well, I shall do as you wish." Archdemon said, getting ready to deal the fatal blow.

"NO!" Clair yelled, as she dived in front of Adray to slash at the Archdemon, making him jump back. "STAY AWAY FROM MY FATHER!"

"Heh, so you're his daughter?" Archdemon sneered. "Would you like to die with him as well?"

"Clair… why are you… here?" Adray asked. "Just run… this demon… is too strong…"

"You look like the one we defeated back at Vanguard…" Maria commented. "Leave Adray alone. Your fight will be with us."

"W…what did you say?" Archdemon asked. "You mean… YOU'RE the ones… who defeated Romero? My brother? Impossible!"

"And you're next! We shall punish you for all your crimes! We can't forgive you for this!" Clair yelled emotionally, as she went into her battle stance. "In the name of Apris, I shall slay you!"

"Heh… is that so. Looks like this has become even more fun." Archdemon said, as the demon sword Levantine appeared in his hand. "I didn't know I was going to get the opportunity to avenge my brother's death... this is perfect. Be prepared, mortals! I shall make your deaths a long, miserable one!"

"HI-YA!" Clair yelled, as she dashed towards the Archdemon, slashing at him rapidly with her twin daggers. Archdemon simply parried of all the attacks with his Levantine sword, then slashed back at her in one giant swing, knocking her back and down on the ground.

"WHIRLWIND KICK!" Tynave yelled as she made a quick turning foot sweep at the Archdemon followed by a spinning back kick. Archdemon dodged the attacks easily, then blew her away with an energy blast from his palm.

"AIMING DEVICE!" Maria yelled, as she crouched down to shoot a quick, powerful plasma beam towards the Archdemon with deadly accuracy, towards his midsection. However, the Archdemon simply deflected the attack away with his sword, then knocked Maria down to the ground with a dark wave emitting from the slash with his Levantine.

"He's… just as tough as his brother…" Maria commented, getting back up to her feet. "Everyone, be careful..."

"EEYAA!" Tynave yelled while running up and delivering a series of swift punches and kicks towards the Archdemon. The demon evaded all the attacks, then suddenly appeared right beside Tynave to deliver a deadly slash with his sword. However, the sword blow simply went right through an illusive image that Tynave had created. Tynave reappeared from above the Archdemon, diving in feet first to deliver her Pillory attack. However, the Archdemon also countered that move with his Flashing Sword maneuver; disappearing and then reappearing behind Tynave for a quick flaming slash with his sword. "AHH!" Tynave screamed in pain as the burning sword slash cut right through the flesh on her back, spraying blood and knocking her down on the ground.

"TYNAVE!" Clair yelled in horror as she ran over to her to help.

"CRESCENT LOCUS!" Maria yelled as she knocked the Archdemon away temporarily with the energy wave generated from her kick.

"Heh heh. Don't mind me. Heal her if you like." Archdemon laughed cockily as he got up from being hit with Maria's attack with ease. "I'm not through playing with you mortals, just yet."

"HEALING!" Clair casted her healing spell once more to heal Tynave's slash wound on her back. "Tynave, you must be careful! Don't attack him aggressively like that!"

"I'm… I'm sorry, Lady Clair. I understand" Tynave apologized, going into her battle stance again. "I'll take uttermost caution from now on…"

"Heh. Alright. It's time for you all to burn in hell!" Archdemon yelled as he raised his Levantine sword high up in the air, in front of him. He then slammed the sword down on the ground, creating a raging fiery inferno around him to knock all three girls back down in a heap of smoke.

"Ah…ahhh… He's… too… strong for three of us…" Maria struggled in pain as she and others all suffered burn wounds from Archdemon's devastating attack. However, they all slowly got back up to their feet, not ready to give up just yet.

"You mortals are much stronger than the others… It's certainly taking a lot of effort on my part." The Archdemon said. "As a matter of fact, you are all starting to annoy me. So there won't be anymore playing around. Now, I'm going to kill you, one by one."

Archdemon then suddenly teleported to front of Clair, as the ground around him erupted in flames. "I'll start with you!" He yelled as he swung back his Levantine, preparing to slash upwards with his Crimson sword attack.

"NO!" Clair screamed as she could only desperately cover herself with her arms in defense. She closed her eyes in fear, expecting a fiery impact and for her death to soon follow. _'Albel…'_

Right before the Archdemon could deliver the Crimson sword attack at Clair, a fiery breath from an Air Dragon blasted him away just in time, saving Clair from the pinch. As Clair slowly opened her eyes again, she saw Albel and Lancar riding the Air Dragon, getting ready to jump down to battle.

"Clair!" Albel yelled. "Are you hurt?"

"A…Albel!" Clair replied. "I'm… I'm okay! T… thank you for saving me!"

"I…is that Albel?" Tynave asked, dumbfounded. "He…saved Lady Clair?"

"You've… come just in time…" Maria said, as she struggled forward to fight once again. "This one is really strong… we're going to need help…"

"Arrrg…" Archdemon groaned as he slowly got up from being hit with the fire breath from Albel's Air Dragon, covered in smoke. "More mortals?"

"Alright! Take this!" Lancar yelled as he jumped off the Air Dragon to dive feet first towards the Archdemon, his body covered in a powerful aura. "AERIAL ASSULT!" As the impact from the Aerial Assult attack sent the Archdemon flying back once again, Albel also jumped off the Air Dragon, slashing his katana with great force to create an aerial version of his Air Slash. The Air Slash knocked the Archdemon down hard on the ground, creating a small crater around the area he fell on. The Archdemon laid there motionlessly, knocked out from the powerful impact.

"That should take care of him!" Lancar said. "We hit him really hard there!"

"This scum looks like that last one we defeated." Albel commented. "I'll finish that maggot off for good… if he's still breathing, that is…"

At that moment, the Archdemon suddenly leaped out from the crater, driving his sword down to the ground while yelling "SWORD… OF DARKNESS!" A huge demon made of blood came out of the ground, doing several energy slashes with its sword. The energy wave from its sword blasted everybody back, knocking them back down in pain.

"HAH! You think you mortals could beat me that easily?" Archdemon yelled. "FOOLS! For embarrassing me like that, I shall kill you! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"

"Ugh… Everybody… I have an idea…" Maria said, slowly getting up to fight once again. "Get ready to hit him with all you got."

Suddenly, Maria turned towards the Archdemon, waving him towards her. "Hey you, if you think you're so great, bring it!" Maria taunted. "A great Demonic specimen like you can't even kill a lowly mortal being such as myself? Especially a frail little girl such as I? How disappointing… Now that I think about it that way, you're pretty pathetic!"

"W…WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Archdemon yelled in rage, as he dashed towards Maria with his Levantine swung back. "SHUT UP AND DIE!"

Right before the Archdemon could hit Maria with his sword in front of her, she pointed her Phase gun down towards the ground, shooting a magnetic burst of energy while yelling "MAGNETIC FIELD!" The magnetic field generated by Maria's gun pulled the Archdemon down to the ground, holding him in place.

"I... I can't move?" Archdemon yelled, paralyzed helplessly in front of Maria. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

"This is our chance! TAKE THIS!" Lancar yelled, as he dashed towards him. "FIST OF FURY!" Lancar delivered a flurry of powerful punches to his midsection, hammering away as if he was a punching bag.

"SHOOTING STARS!" Tynave yelled as she ran in behind the locked-down Archdemon to deliver a flurry of dozen powerful punches herself, right onto his back. Devastated by the two punch attacks, the Archdemon staggered around in one spot, dazed.

"NOW, DIE! FELL MY PAIN!" Albel yelled, as he generated an energy field around him and drove his Claw hand right through Archdemon's midsection, yelling "VAMPIRIC FLESH!"

"G…GWAAA…" Archdemon growled in pain as his energy and life force slowly drained right out from his body. "TO…LOSE…TO…MORTALS…"

"MIRROR SLICE!" Clair dashed in to deliver the finishing blow, slicing and dicing him with smooth series of rapid and powerful slashes across his body. The Archdemon staggered then dropped to the ground lifelessly, killed once and for all.

"We got the bastard." Albel said, spitting on his dead body. "Rot in hell, maggot."

After the end of the battle, Clair quickly rushed over to Adray's side without a moment's hesitation. "F…father! Are you okay?" Clair asked in panic. "P…please answer me!"

"C… Clair… I… saw… the fight…" Adray faintly said, clutching the big wound on his chest. "I'm proud of you… you've… you've really grown… strong…"

"HEALING!" Clair casted her healing spell, in an attempt to heal Adray's wound. However, her spell was too weak to cover his large wound.

"It's… it's too weak!" Maria said in concern. "And my healing powers aren't much better either… Adray, please hang in there… we'll take you back to the spaceship and have Meena treat you!"

"Damn, they're still fighting!" Lancar cursed in frustration, after speaking with Marietta over the communicator. "They got out of their pinch for now, but they still can't teleport us in with all that fighting in space!"

"It's… no… use…" Adray muttered, his voice becoming more faint by the moment. "He's infected me… with a disease… as well… it's… too late…"

"The demon virus?" Albel asked, pounding the ground with his fist in rage. "Damn! That son of a bitch!"

"F…father! No! Don't ever say that! HEALING! RESTORATION! ANTIDOTE!" Clair yelled as she frantically used various healing spells over and over in desperation. "I'm not going to give up!"

"No… Clair… stop… you're… wasting your time…" Adray pleaded, his breathing getting heavier. "Just… get to… Kaddan… as soon as you can… Before it's too late… That's where her majesty, and the King Airyglyph… retreated… You… must go protect them…"

"F…father…" Clair dropped to the ground, drained out from casting her healing spells repeatedly, tears now welling up in her eyes. "I'm… I'm sorry…"

"Don't…say… that… I'm the one… who should be sorry…" Adray said faintly, as his voice got even weaker. "For being… a bad father… being an embarrassment to you… all these years…"

"No!" Clair yelled back in sorrow, with her tears now freely flowing down her cheek. "You're wrong! I was always proud of you! And I always loved you! Please… father… Don't leave me!"

"…" Albel couldn't say anything, though he wanted to. But one thing was for sure; seeing Clair in sorrow also hurt him greatly as well.

"I'm… sorry… I couldn't live long enough… to see you get married… to see your kids…" Adray said, his eyes now slowly closing. "Clair… just remember… I'm proud of you… and I love you…"

Adray's head tilted sideways, as his eyes completely closed.

"NOOO!" Clair cried, grasping the dead body of her father as she buried her face in his arms in grief. "FATHER…"

"Adray…" Maria trailed off, as her voice choked and tears started trickling down her cheeks.

"Sir Adray… no…" Tynave muttered, as she dropped to her knees in despair.

"They…they won't get away with this…" Lancar said in rage, as grasped his hands tightly into a fist. "I swear to god… I'll make them pay… they've gone too far!"

Albel just stood there quietly, not being able to take his eyes off the sight of Clair crying in sorrow. Right there, for the first time in his life, he felt really sad for another person; there was a weird, sharp pain in his heart.

_I'm going to end this_. _I'll make sure of it. _Albel thought to himself, getting a whole new sense of determination. _I'm not going to stop until I do. _

_I'm going to protect this world._


	15. Part 15: Chapters 49, 50, 51

**Chapter 49: The conference**

The combined forces of Greeton, Lazeria, and other Federation Ships arriving in their aid successfully destroyed all of the demon ships lurking in the orbits of Elicoor II. After they cleared out all the enemy threat out in space, Marietta was finally able to beam up Albel, Lancar, Maria, Clair, and Tynave back up to Lazeria. Everybody met up at the conference room again, updating each other on the situation out in space and in Elicoor.

"Alright… everyone's here, right?" Steeg asked, as everybody took a seat. "Okay… lots of things happened both in space and on the planet, so let's share all the information and plan our next move."

"Wait… Clair's not here yet…" Reen brought it to everyone's attention. "Where is she? We should wait for her first."

"I hate to be the bearer of this unfortunate news… but…" Maria replied, with her eyes still red. "Clair has just lost her father… in a battle against one of the demons… I think it's best to leave her alone for now."

"WHAT?" Roger yelled, totally stunned. "A…Adray… he's gone… too?"

"N… no… please tell me you're joking…" Peppita muttered in despair, as tears started trickling down her cheeks. "S… Sir Adray too? It can't be… this is horrible…"

"DAMN IT!" Roger yelled, getting up and punching the wall nearest him in rage. "I can't take this anymore! This has to stop… THIS HAS TO STOP!"

"You're right… this is enough…" Raditz said, his fists trembling in anger. "The killing has to stop… I don't want anymore innocent victims!"

"I agree… and I'm sure everyone else does, too. That's why we're all here to discuss what we can do to stop them once and for all." Maria said, focusing back on the situation at hand. "Let's give Clair some time alone… we'll inform her of what we're doing next afterwards, once we figure it all out."

_Clair…_ Albel thought, as he couldn't stop thinking about her. The image of her crying in sorrow was still vivid in Albel's mind, and wouldn't go away.

"Well, as things stand… all I know is that City of Aquios and Airyglyph have both been totally destroyed…" Maria explained. "Tynave, you were assigned to Arias, right? Could you explain everything that happened here in Elicoor before we arrived?"

"…The demon army first invaded Arias early this morning…" Tynave explained. "The demon forces were too strong for us… and there were too many of them, so only thing I could do was to retreat our forces and evacuate all the citizens to Peterny… then I heard about the demons invading Aquios, so I rushed over there immediately in concern of her majesty, abandoning my post. Unfortunately, I'm not sure about what's become of Peterny now…"

"Actually, we received some information from Greeton about the current situation on Continent of Gaitt…" Marietta said. "The City of Aquios, Airyglyph, Arias, have all indeed been destroyed… and there are three fronts located in Peterny, Surferio and Kirlsa at the moment holding out against the Demon forces. Greetonite Army have agreed to send military aid to those cities, but they also have their hands full in defending their own land…"

"I've already contacted the Federation Headquarters about what's going on here…" Steeg explained. "They'll be sending in major reinforcements to this planet very shortly. This is an underdeveloped planet, but there's no other choice. The fate of the whole universe depends on the safety of this planet. Well, this planet was sort of involved already with us 2 years ago, anyway."

"Tynave, what's happened to her majesty?" Farleen asked in concern. "Is she safe, out of harm's way? I certainly hope so!"

"Her majesty has taken refuge at the Shrine of Kaddan for now, along with the King of Airyglyph…" Tynave replied. "And from what I know, no demons were able to get through to Kaddan… we defeated them all before they could enter the Sealed Cavern… so I think things are safe for now…"

"But what about right now?" Reen asked. "Those demons can still attack at any moment, you know!"

"Yes, I made sure the entrance to Kaddan was to be guarded tightly as possible…" Maria said, turning to Lieber. "Lieber, I told you about it over the communicator right? Has everything been taken care of?"

"Yes, Maria! There's no need to worry!" Lieber assured her. "We've already sent out all of our combat personnels to guard the entrance to Shrine of Kaddan as tightly as possible! And Greetonite forces have also sent in majority of their forces to help, since they too know that guarding the Sacred Orb is our top priority! Even those demons won't have an easy time penetrating both of our defense forces!"

"I guess everything's safe, at least for tonight." Maria commented. "But we still need to reach her majesty to inform her of what is going on."

"Yup. And I think we should evacuate everybody at the Shrine of Kaddan as well as the Sacred Orb to a safer place…" Lancar suggested. "The demons seem to know where it is already… so as long as it stays there, they're just going to keep coming."

"That's a great idea!" Raditz agreed. "I think we should bring everybody and the Sacred Orb to this ship, here in outer space! That way, the demons wouldn't have a clue about where it really is anymore!"

"Hmm, to get them to keep searching… yes, that would surely slow down their operations." Jeiuce said. "Not too bad… you mortals aren't as incompetent as you look, after all."

"But there's only one problem with that…" Maria said. "The Sacred Orb is a property of her majesty, and we can't just take her or the Orb with us as we wish. We would need to have her approval… her permission, to do so."

"In that case, I'll go and explain everything to her…" Lancar suggested. "I'm sure she'll agree to come with us and let us protect the Sacred Orb… she would already know about the importance of the Sacred Orb to our universe from what happened two years ago."

"Me and Tynave will also come with you!" Farleen said. "It's our duty to protect her majesty and escort her back… besides, you're going to need to know how to get through the Sealed Cavern and the Shrine of Kaddan!"

"Yes. Farleen and I both know the way around the interior sections." Tynave agreed. "We'll both guide you along the way, Mr. Lancar."

"Thank you, ladies." Lancar said. "It should be fine with just three of us, right?"

"Well, I think it would be better if she saw someone from our group two years ago… that way she would trust us more…" Peppita pointed out. "I had an opportunity to meet her majesty two years ago before our group headed off to Mosel… so I think she'll remember me. So I'll come along too!"

"I… I'll go too!" Roger offered to go along right away, as soon as Peppita finished her sentence. "I was also there two years ago! Her majesty knows of my heroics… hehe, she'll have full confidence in me!"

"Haha… I'm sure she will, Roger. Anyways…" Maria continued, amused by Roger's ever-boundless self confidence. "Then Lancar, Farleen, Tynave, Peppita, and Roger… your group can head off to Shrine of Kaddan first thing tomorrow morning and explain the current situation to her majesty… then escort her back here if she compiles. Actually, Meena, would you mind going with them as well? I think there's going to be many soldiers and clerics who's suffered injuries from fleeing the Demon attacks… so your healing powers would be a great asset."

"Sure! I just want to help in any way I can!" Meena complied enthusiastically.

"Thank you. So it's decided then... The six of you can leave tomorrow morning to Kaddan." Maria said. "As for the rest of us, we'll figure out where the rest of the demons are coming from."

"Actually, Maria… we found out that out already." Lancar told her, looking at Albel. "That old man from Airyglyph told us where the demons are coming from, right Albel? From some Temple or something like that?"

"…Urssa Cave Temple." Albel muttered, his mind still on Clair.

"Hmm, I don't remember any temples being there the last time we went…" Maria said. "But this is good. We at least know where to look around this time."

"…I know where it is." Albel said, remembering back to the time when he had trained with Crosell. He had discovered the entrance to the Temple in one of the caves at Crosell's Lair while wondering around, but the big dragon had told him at the time that entering the Temple was forbidden. "I'll lead the way."

"Alright. Then the rest of us will head to this Urssa Cave Temple tomorrow morning to find the entrance to the Daemoneum." Maria said. "Lancar and others, please catch up with us once you complete your own mission. I know we're going to need all your help, as well."

"You got it. We'll be there as soon as we can." Lancar assured her, getting up from his seat. "Okay then. So that's our plan for tomorrow. Everybody, please make all the preparations and rest up for the night… we all got a long and important day ahead of us."

* * *

Albel reluctantly walked into his guest room in Lazeria, thinking that it was not where he wanted to be right now. Sure, he had a long, crucial day ahead of him tomorrow, perhaps the day in which may decide the fate of the universe. Albel was well aware of this, and knew that he should be making necessary preparations and also get a good night's sleep, but he could not focus in doing that; that's not what he wanted to be doing. He didn't want to be in his room… he knew that he wanted to be somewhere else, with someone else, at that moment. Without hesitation, he got up from his chair, walked out of his room and headed towards Clair's room.

As Albel walked towards the room, he saw a crowd of people gathered in the hallway, talking amongst each other with concern. It was everybody in the group sans Jeiuce, worrying over Clair.

"Albel!" Reen yelled, spotting Albel from the distance and calling him over. "Did you come to talk to Clair too? Come here for a sec!"

"What…" Albel said, surprised that there was a group of people in front of her room. "Why are all of you here…"

"We all wanted to give Clair our condolences for her father's passing…" Raditz replied. "But she seems to be in really rough shape right now… We're not sure of how to approach her…"

"Well, she's just lost her father. I definitely understand her feeling." Maria said, with a sad look. "I don't think we should all go in at once… it might make her feel even worse… she might just want to be alone right now."

"I agree with Maria… Clair seems like the type who hates for others to feel sorry for her… no matter what the situation is…" Lancar commented. "There's no need for us to all rush in together and make her feel like a charity case."

"But we should be saying something! We have to show her our support!" Peppita disagreed. "I don't want to leave her alone like this!"

"Yeah… I've never seen Lady Clair like this… I feel so sad for her…" Farleen said. "There's gotta be something we can do to cheer her up."

"I know!" Reen said, turning to Albel. "Hey Albel… do you think you can go in here to talk to her? It might make her feel a little better if it was you…"

"W…what are you saying?" Albel said, flustered. "What words out of my mouth can possibly make her feel better? I am no good at that sort of thing, you worms all know that!"

"Well, but that's the reason why you came here in the first place, wasn't it?" Reen asked. "Didn't you come here to give her your condolences as well?"

"N…nonsense…She's strong enough to handle her own grief." Albel denied, looking away. "I'm here to inform her of tomorrow's plans, since none of you fools seem to have done so yet. She should be making preparations for tomorrow…"

"How terrible! How can you say things like that!" Farleen yelled. "Are you that insensitive? She's just lost her father you know!"

"Yes, that's a horrible, horrible thing to say!" Tynave also yelled at him. "You don't even have a clue about what Lady Clair is going through!"

"Beh…" Albel could do nothing but grunt, realizing fully well how insensitive that sounded. Still, there was no way he wanted to admit his true intentions in front of everyone. It wouldn't have been _Albel-like. _There was no way he was going to show everyone the "other" side of him.

"Heh…" Reen smiled a little, fully aware that Albel was just hiding his true intentions and feelings. "Farleen, I know he doesn't mean it… just cool off for sec ok… heehee… so Albel, why don't you go in there to talk to her about whatever you wanted to, then?"

"Yes… let's just have Albel talk to her for now." Maria agreed, realizing where Reen was getting at. "We'll all talk to her after Clair's gathered herself a little, instead. It's never too late to give our condolences, anyway. So Albel, please go in and inform her of our plans for tomorrow."

"I will. So all of you can get lost." Albel waved them off. "You fools should be making preparations and getting some rest for tomorrow, not worrying over silly matters like this."

"Yes… of course." Maria said, smiling a bit. "Everyone, let's get back to our rooms and rest up. I'll see you all tomorrow morning."

"Hmph." Albel turned around, and walked down the hallway towards Clair's room.

"What was that all about?" Farleen asked in annoyed voice. "What I said was true!"

"Yes, that was a very rude thing for him to say!" Tynave agreed. "How can you agree with that man, Miss Maria?"

"I can't say that I know Albel well enough, but I can definitely tell when he is sincere in his words or not." Maria told her. "He definitely didn't mean what he said back there. He's concerned about Clair as much as we are, if not more."

"Yeah… come on, Farleen, you know what we're talking about!" Reen said. "You know that Albel is the only one that can cheer up Clair right now…"

"…Yeah… I guess you're right…" Farleen admitted. "I forgot about that… sorry."

"Huh… what are they talking about, Lancar?" Roger asked, confused. "If he didn't mean what he said, why would he say it?"

"Jeez… Roger…" Lancar asked, shaking his head. "Don't you remember our man-to-man talk about woman and relationships from that night at Otanim? Seriously, did you even learn anything AT ALL?"

"…No…" Roger muttered under his breath, giving an annoyed look. _"…Of course not… all you did was just get drunk…"_

"Did you say something, kid?" Lancar asked, with a scary look, sensing that he was mocking him.

"Um, nothing!" Roger replied, with a sweatdrop.

Everybody turned around and headed back to their rooms, except for Reen who was sneaking towards Clair's room to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Umm… Reen, what are you doing?" Raditz asked, with a sweatdrop.

"Shhhh… you guys just go!" Reen said with a smile, giving a wink and putting her ears towards the door. "But I just HAVE to listen in on this… this could be good stuff!"

"Umm… I REALLY think we should leave them alone to talk…" Raditz said, as he pulled on Reen's arm to pull her away forcefully. "That was the whole point, ya know…"

"Yeah… you can't just eavesdrop like that… it's not right…" Peppita agreed, also pulling Reen away together with Raditz. "Let's just leave those two alone!"

"Aww… but come on!" Reen whined playfully with a smile, as she helplessly got dragged away back to her room.

* * *

Albel slowly opened the door to Clair's room and saw that the lighting of the room was dim, as if she wanted to cry herself to sleep. He saw Clair hunched over with her face buried in both of her arms, still crying out softly. Stunned at seeing her in sorrow, Albel was almost too scared to say anything at first, but then finally found the courage to speak.

"Clair…" Albel simply called out her name.

"A…Albel…" Clair mumbled in surprise, quickly getting up from the chair and wiping away her tears. "I… I didn't know you came in…"

"I'm… I'm here to inform you about what we're planning to do tomorrow." Albel quickly said, not knowing what else to say at that awkward moment. "While you were away, we planned out everything… and…"

"That's right… oh dear… I'm sorry…" Clair apologized, her eyes red after hours of crying. "I can't believe I didn't attend the meeting… how irresponsible… and I'm the supposed leader of the Crimson blades… it's pathetic, isn't it?"

"…I'm sorry." Albel finally said it. Sincerely. "I'm sorry about your father."

Suddenly, Clair quickly turned around to face him, surprised. Albel had just given his condolences to her, and she could feel that he truly meant it. Still doubting herself, however, she quickly turned back, to shrug it off.

"…No… please… Albel, there is no need to force yourself to say that." Clair said, trying to put on a brave face. "Yes, my father has passed away, but there have also been countless other deaths… I should treat it no different… I shouldn't be sulking like this and forgetting my responsibilities… I'm the one who should apologize."

"No, I meant it. I wanted to say it." Albel said it straight and loud. "Losing your father is certainly devastating and traumatic. No one is blaming you for your grievance, everyone understands. So quit being so harsh on yourself!"

"Albel, you really…" Clair said, turning around once again to gaze into his eyes.

"I've lost my father… and my mother… to these demons as well, don't forget that!" Albel yelled, blowing up. "Everybody is losing someone important to them… you're not alone on this! Everything is being destroyed… more people are being lost and sacrificed… Everything is being taken away from me… because of these wretched demons… I can't bear to see this any longer… I won't allow this to continue…Screw revenge! It's not about that anymore… I don't want to lose anyone or anything else anymore dammit! Including you!"

"…Albel!" Clair suddenly threw herself into Albel's arms, overcome with emotion. Clair buried her face in his chest and cried out softly, as Albel gently returned the hug. The two embraced in the dimly lighted room for what seemed like eternity, clinging onto what they cared about the most, and treasured more than anything else at that very moment - each other. As Albel felt Clair's heartbeat through his own body, something suddenly clicked into his mind… a whole new sense of motivation.

"…I'm going to protect you." Albel quietly and gently whispered into Clair's ear, his body trembling. "I'm going to protect you, and this universe. I'll swear on my life."

"…" Clair couldn't say anything, her throat choked back with emotion, but at that moment, words weren't necessary for Albel to hear what Clair wanted to say back to him in return. _I don't want to lose you… I swear I'm not going to let you go… We'll save this universe together… and no matter what happens along the way…_

Clair raised her head, looked deeply into Albel's eyes and sent her last message, as Albel slowly guided his lips into hers.

… _I'll be with you, always._

* * *

Early next morning, everybody gathered at the bridge of the Diplo, preparing themselves for what was to be a fateful day ahead of them. But before anything, everyone went over to Clair to give their condolences and support.

"Clair, I'll say it for everyone here… we're all really sorry about what happened yesterday." Lancar said, in a low voice. "I know it won't help much when I say this, but… don't forget that we're all with you… and know that you'll always have our support."

"Thank you so much Lancar… and everyone…" Clair humbly replied, with a brave and determined look. "Yes, it was certainly devastating, and there is no words that can describe the grief in losing my father… but instead of grieving in sorrow, let's do what we can right here and now, so that there won't be any more tragic deaths and sacrifices. That is how my father would want it. I know so."

"For sure! I KNOW that's what Adray would have wanted!" Roger agreed. "And Cliff, and Count Woltar, and everyone else, too! We can't let them down!"

"Yes. We'll rescue Fayt and Nel, and save this universe as well as the Daemonium from those evil tyrants, whomever it may be." Maria said. "For everyone's sake; including the ones that have sacrificed their lives for us to fight on."

"Alright! Then let's do this!" Raditz yelled enthusiastically, then turned to Clair. "Oh, Clair, you know about what's going on, right?"

"Yes, Albel informed me of the plans." Clair said, turning to Tynave and Farleen to give them something. "That reminds me. Here, Tynave… Farleen… take this."

"Huh… what's this?" Farleen asked, examining the object that Clair handed to her. It was a wooden charm, with a strange rune carved onto it.

"Your group will be heading deep into the Shrine of Kaddan, but as you know, the Shrine is full of traps, guardians, and other defense mechanisms." Clair explained. "This special rune should resonate with the holy power of the shrine and disable any traps and guardians your group might encounter. It'll make your trip much safer and easier."

"Oh yeah, those annoying traps and guardians…" Roger muttered, remembering back to the tedious and sometimes painful experiences from the Shrine of Kaddan two years ago. "Thanks so much! I'm glad we won't have to deal with those things this time…"

"Please explain everything carefully and guide her majesty as well as King of Airyglyph back to this ship." Clair said, bowing to the group. "May the grace of Apris be with you."

"May the grace of Apris be with you." Tynave and Farleen saluted back.

"Okay, let's go everyone!" Lancar said, as him, Tynave, Farleen, Roger, Peppita, and Meena all turned and ran towards the transporter room. "We'll see you all soon!"

"Alright, let's get moving, then!" Albel yelled, looking back to Clair, Maria, Jeiuce, Raditz and Reen. "Let's go destroy those scums!"

"Yeah!" Reen yelled out as well. "Let's go teach them a lesson!"

While the group headed off, Albel looked back to Clair, who had also looked towards Albel at the same time. As their eyes met, they simply smiled back to each other and nodded, showing their deep trust and support for one another.

* * *

**Chapter 50: Sealed Cavern**

Lancar and others transported directly to the gates of the destroyed Castle Aquaria, and made their way down the stairs located at the cathedral. After a long walk, they finally made it to the entrance of the Sealed Cavern – the secret underground passageway between Aquios and Kaddan.

"Man, this place is like another ruin…" Lancar commented, looking around. "I know rest of you have been here before, but this place gives me the creeps…"

"I'm scared…" Meena mumbled, following behind Lancar. "I haven't been here either."

"Ahh, don't worry! Just leave it up to me!" Roger said proudly. "I came here many times 2 years ago and enemies here are piece of cake!"

"Umm, but what about that time when Fayt had to save you from one of those monsters…" Peppita sneered. "And that time when you almost got squished by one of those blocks moving up and down?"

"Uh… hehe, oh ya…" Roger blushed, scratching his head. "I guess I was exaggerating, but don't worry! We've gotten stronger too!"

"Yeah I guess so… but let's still be careful." Peppita said.

"Yes, please keep an eye out for any monsters…" Tynave said, looking around carefully. "We do know where to go, but that charm Lady Clair gave us will only protect us from traps and guardians at Kaddan. We may still run into enemies here in Sealed Cavern."

"That's right, now that I think about it… this is where Lady Nel was assigned to for her mission…" Farleen recalled. "And she ended up getting caught by the demons… let's be careful, everyone!"

The Queen's party had already enabled the moving blocks previously, so Lancar's group did not have to go through the trouble of looking for the right switches. They all followed Tynave and Farleen's lead, encountering some skeleton monsters and evil wizards along the way. However, like Roger said, everyone had grown much stronger; the group dispatched the enemies without too much trouble.

"Alright, we're almost there now." Tynave told everyone, as the group entered the hallway that leads to the main entrance of Kaddan. "Let's rest for a few minutes at the entrance… we still have to go quite a way before we reach the altar of the Sacred Orb."

"Phew, at least those monsters didn't give us too much trouble…" Farleen said in relief. "And we won't have to encounter any more enemies after this… this isn't too bad after all, huh?"

"Awww, Farleen!" Roger yelled, annoyed. "Did you really have to say that? You jinxed it again!"

"Roger, quit it!" Farleen yelled back. "Stop believing in such things!"

"I have to admit, Farleen's track record with these things IS pretty bad…" Lancar said. "But I can't really see anything happening this time. We got that holy charm and everything…"

"W…Wait!" Tynave suddenly yelled, looking towards the entrances to Kaddan. There was a group of about 20 demons, guarding the entrance.

"S…shit, demons?" Lancar yelled, jumping back to get ready for a battle. "How did they get in here? The guards said that nobody came in from the outside!"

"Am… I really bad luck?" Farleen asked, also going into her battle stance. "Why does this always have to happen?"

"Roger, protect Meena for us!" Peppita yelled, readying herself. "Don't let her get hurt!"

"You can count on it!" Roger yelled. "I promise they won't lay a finger on her!"

"What? Mortals?" The leader of the demon with a big horn yelled, as the other demons scrambled forward to attack the group. "Do not let them into the Shrine! KILL THEM!"

Two of the demons rushed towards Lancar to attack him with their claw slashes. Lancar simply ducked the attack, decked one of them in the stomach, then grabbed and tossed him into the other demon. Both demons crashed right into the wall, and got knocked out.

Tynave was in a showdown with another one of the demons that had a sword. The demon swung his sword relentlessly at Tynave, butshe was too quick for him to hit. Tynave suddenly ran circles around the demon, so quick that there were two other images ofher going around him. She yelled out "DEAD TRIANGLE!" as her and two other illusive images surrounded the demon in a triangle formation, lunging towards the helpless demon to slash it three times simultaneously with her claws. The demon humped over from the attack, lifeless.

Meanwhile, Roger was fending off other demons that were going after him as well as Meena at the same time. Seeing one demon coming towards him from the distance, Roger tossed one of his chained axes to wrap it around the demon's body, tying him up. Roger then tossed his other chained axe towards the neck of the helpless demon at a blinding speed, yelling "EXECUTION!" The Axe shot decapitated the demon's head, execution style, as the lifeless body of the demon dropped to the floor.

While Roger had his hands full with the demons, another one of the demons from behind him began his spellcasting, then yelled "ENERGY ARROW!" as dozens of dark energy arrows homed in behind unsuspecting Roger.

"NO!" Peppita yelled, as she ran over to Roger to help, but she was too late. Roger turned around to see the energy arrows homing in on him fiercely, with no time to react.

"BARRIER!" Meena suddenly yelled, creating a protective barrier around Roger just in time to deflect the energy arrow attack. "Are you okay, big brother?"

"Phew… yeah, I'm okay… thanks, Meena!" Roger thanked Meena, turning around to attack the demon that casted the spell at him just before.

Meanwhile, Farleen was charging up a massive spell, as she knew they were greatly outnumbered in this fight and that they needed a big spell to take care of them all at once. Tynave fended off any attacks that were coming Farleen's way, so that they wouldn't disrupt her spellcasting. "MOVE OUT!" Farleen suddenly yelled out aloud after a while, as she swung her staff down while yelling "METEOR SWARM!" The runological energy created large meteor-looking boulders from high up above the Cavern, as they fell down towards the demons and crushed them all flat. The spell killed off most of the demons, except for their leader who had just barely evaded the attack.

"Why… how dare you lowly mortals…" The Demon yelled in frustration, as he took his sword and suddenly slammed it down the ground. "EARTHQUAKE!" He yelled, as the ground shook violently and knocked everyone off their feet, rattling them around like little beans on a frying pan.

"Uggh!" Lancar groaned as everyone was down on the ground, in a world of hurt. Everyone except for Peppita, that is. Peppita had cleverly avoided the Earthquake attack by jumping and clinging on to the ceiling, as if it was a circus performance. Peppita suddenly dropped down above the unsuspecting demon, raising both of her hands high above her head while yelling "DREAM HAMMER!" a gigantic magical hammer suddenly appeared in her hands, as she swung it downwards to nail the demon hard right on top of his head. The hammer blow dizzied the demon, as it staggered back and forth in one spot helplessly.

"He's stunned!" Peppita yelled to Lancar. "This is your chance!"

"Arrg… Alright… TAKE THIS!" Lancar forced himself up, still in pain, to deal the final blow to the demon. Lancar swung back his fist, then suddenly charged towards the demon at a lightning-quick speed, just like his Fiery Tackle attack. Covered in a bright, powerful aura, Lancar thrusted his fist forward right before the moment of impact, yelling "SHINING KNUCKLE!" The powerful punch tore right through the midsection of the demon, going through him with force so great that it tore his body up into little pieces.

"Ha… how's that, you demon…" Lancar taunted, out of breath. "How did you like going out with a BANG, you son of a bitch…?"

"…Big brother?" Meena yelled, as she crawled out from Roger's grasp. Roger had covered Meena with his own body so she wouldn't be hurt by the earthquake attack. Seeing everybody except for Peppita in a near-unconscious state, Meena quickly casted her Faerie Light spell, healing their wounds.

"Thank you, big brother Roger… for protecting me…" Meena thanked Roger.

"Heh, no sweat. I promised to protect you, didn't I?" Roger said proudly, giving a thumbs up. "I'm always the man of his word!"

"Phew… huff that was close…" Farleen said in relief. "I'm glad everyone's alright…"

"What were those demons doing here? How in the world did they get in…" Tynave wondered. "That was certainly unexpected."

"Hmm… and I wonder why they were just stationed at the entrance to the Shrine…" Lancar pondered. "Shouldn't they be going in? I thought they were after the Sacred Orb…"

"Well, Kaddan is the holy place, right?" Peppita said. "They're evil demons, so maybe that's why they couldn't get in. But if that's the case, why would they even bother showing up here? They just stood right in front of the entrance, as if they were guarding it… it's weird…"

"Wait a minute, maybe that's it!" Lancar suddenly yelled, as his eyes opened wide. "Maybe they were guarding the Temple from any interference from the outside… which means… there's probably someone already in there!"

"Oh no, that means her majesty and others could be in danger!" Farleen shrieked, her face turning pale in worry. "This could be trouble… let's get to the altar room as fast as we can!"

"Yes, let us hurry!" Tynave said aloud, as she quickly entered the door to Kaddan and ran down the hallway. "We must protect her majesty at all costs!"

* * *

**Chapter 51: The Intruder**

Lancar and others dashed through the Shrine of Kaddan, concerned about the unexpected intruder who had made it through the dungeon before them.

"I really hope her majesty and everyone else is alright…" Peppita said, worried. "We have to get there before it's too late!"

"I think we'll be able to catch up to the demon…" Tynave commented. "As you know, there are countless number of traps and guardians in this dungeon… no matter how strong that demon is, I doubt he would be able to get through them without trouble. Thankfully, since we have the charm with us, we'll be able to get through everything without much problem… we'll most likely get there before the demon reaches the altar room."

"Still, let's hurry." Lancar said, running ahead. "What I'm really wondering is how this demon was able to enter the Shrine… the holy aura of the Shrine is supposed to repel and demons from entering, no? I mean, all those other demons were left behind."

"Well, those demons from before were able to use Fayt and Maria's genes to act like 4D beings, right?" Roger asked. "So maybe they were able to enter the Shrine in the same way… I guess anything would be possible…"

"I'm confused…" Meena mumbled, riding on Lancar's back so that she can keep up with the rest of the group. "But I'll still try my bes…. AHHHHHHH!" Meena suddenly shrieked, shocked by what she saw on the ground ahead of her. There was a lifeless body of a soldier down on the ground, in a pool of blood.

"What the hell?" Lancar yelled, stunned by the scene. "Did that demon who came in ahead of us do this?"

"T… that's one of our Royal guards…" Tynave informed him, trembling in shock. "This is not good… her majesty could be in real danger!"

"Shit, let's hurry up." Lancar cursed, as he moved ahead. As they entered the next room, they witnessed something else; they saw broken pieces of crystal scattered across the floor.

"What's this?" Peppita asked. "Why are there crystal shards everywhere?"

"This… could it be…" Farleen wondered, her body trembling in fear.

"This is the crystal statue we had to fight on the way 2 years ago!" Roger yelled. "This is one of the guardians of the Shrine, isn't it?"

"Yes… it's one of the guardians…" Tynave confirmed. "I can't believe it… this demon just didn't defeat it… he destroyed it completely!"

"This guy must be really powerful…" Lancar said. "Let's keep going… this is worse than what I had imagined…"

The group made their way through several more hallways, witnessing scene after scene of absolute carnage along the way. There were numerous corpses of Royal Guards scattered around the hall, as well as broken pieces of rolling crystal ball guardians. Roger recalled how hard these guardians were to defeat when he came through here 2 years ago… he realized that this was certainly no ordinary demon that was making its way through. He was slightly sweating, fearing how powerful this demon they have to face might be.

"There's no way one single demon could have done this… no matter how strong it was… this is our entire army they destroyed…" Tynave said. "There's probably a few of them."

As they entered the next room, they witnessed more crystal pieces on the floor. This time, however, it was black crystal pieces. Roger suddenly stopped dead on his tracks, remembering what this was.

"Black Crystals? This is… its Crystal Cerberus!" Roger exclaimed. "This thing was like the strongest guardian here in this Shrine! We even had trouble defeating this thing with 6 people… and you're telling me this demon just destroyed it all by himself?"

"No, this HAD to be more than one person…" Farleen said. "This guardian is way too tough to beat for just single person… no way!"

"What kind of monster is this…" Lancar muttered. "Will we be able to even defeat this thing once we catch up to it?"

Everyone eventually reached the hallway with many doors, in which a party had to split up to face each guardian individually. However, more of the same from before was witnessed here; the demon had totally destroyed every single one of them. Becoming fearful of increasing display of the demon's power, the party kept going, and reached the room with the moving blocks.

"I bet even that thing had trouble getting through this!" Farleen said confidently. "These moving blocks are final set of traps before you get to the altar room… you make contact with it and BOOM! It'll pull you back to the beginning!"

"Yeah… I certainly remember this one…" Peppita said, remembering the room very well. "It took us a while to figure it out."

But as the group entered the room, they witnessed a totally unexpected scene. The moving blocks were all destroyed and disabled, as if somebody just tore their way through them.

"What the? He just went through the blocks?" Roger yelled. "That's impossible!"

"GWAAAA!" Suddenly, a scream was heard coming from the room from the room across from them. Everybody turned around, alarmed by the blood-curdling scream.

"T… that came from the altar room! It's past that door on the other side!" Tynave said, running towards the room "Somebody's in danger! Let's hurry! We have to save them!"

Everybody wasted no time running across to the altar room, and as they entered, they saw King Airyglyph and few other remaining guards standing firm against the lone enemy. The enemy was a blue-haired boy, with a white cape draped over his back, a rainbow-coloured sword in his hand and incredible aura emitting from his body. Lasselle was seen crumpled up on the other side of the room badly injured, while Queen Romeria and Lady Elena were hiding behind the King and the guards. 

"Your majesty!" Farleen yelled. "OH NO!"

"T…Tynave… Farleen…" Lasselle mumbled, bleeding badly from his chest. "…I couldn't… protect… her majesty… from… this monster… please… protect… " Lasselle's head dropped back, fainting from excessive bleeding.

"Tynave… Farleen… you've come… please, protect the Sacred Orb!" The Queen said, visibly in shock.

_"…Orb."_ The blue-haired demanded in robotic voice, with his eyes showing no trace of emotion. _"The Sacred Orb… Give it to me."_

"T… that's the one who tore his way through this entire dungeon?" Lancar asked, dumbfounded. "by himself?…but he's not even a demon!"

"You're not stealing our land's sacred treasure! We shall all fight to our deaths! " The King yelled, turning back to the remaining guards then pointing towards the boy. "ATTACK!"

As the four guards dashed towards the blue-haired boy with their spears, the boy didn't even flinch; he simply raised his Eternal Sphere sword, swung in back and slashed it towards the guards in a blur while yelling _"GALE SLASH!"_ The gust of wind generated from the slash was similar to Albel and Raditz's Air Slash, but it wasn't even comparable in terms of power. The blast was so strong that it didn't just blow the soldiers away – it disintegrated them in a flash.

"…W…what power…" King Airyglyph mumbled, as he slowly stepped back, intimidated from the frightful display of the Blue-haired boy's power. "That power… is not of this world…"

The boy took the opportunity to dash in front of Queen Romeria, who had been holding the Sacred Orb. "YOUR MAJESTY! NO!" Lady Elena yelled as she quickly rushed in front of the Queen, getting in between her and the boy just in time. The boy, without any expression on his face, raised his sword to kill the obstacle to him that was Elena. Elena closed her eyes, awaiting her death.

"ELENA!" King Airyglyph yelled, as he quickly dove in front of Elena to push her out of the way. The Blue-haired boy's rapid sword slash sliced acrossed the King's chest, knocking him back with his blood spraying everywhere. He dropped down to the floor, his body lying motionless.

"A…ARZY!" Elena cried, stunned that her former lover had just sacrificed his life for him. "N…NOOOOO!"

"E… Elena…" The King weakly muttered his last words, as his eyes closed and his head tilted back.

"Y… YOU MONSTER!" Lancar yelled, as him, Tynave, Farleen, Roger, and Peppita all lunged towards the boy at the same time to take him on. "STOP IT!"

The Blue-haired boy nonchalantly raised his sword once again, not flinching even one bit. He swung his sword back, and then slashed it across towards the 5 fighters in a circular motion while yelling _"SHOCKWAVE STORM!"_ Bright, GIGANTIC pillars of energy suddenly erupted from the ground in a circular pattern, as the boy's powered-up version of the Shockwave Swirl blasted everybody back towards the wall. Lancar, Tynave, Farleen, Roger, and Peppita were all met with a sickening crash against the wall, then dropped down and fell unconscious on the floor. The Blue-Haired boy had just beaten them all with one single move, effortlessly.

"…A…ah…" Meena stuttered, scared to death with what she just witnessed. She wanted to do something to help her comrades, but her body wouldn't respond; it was paralyzed in fear.

The boy then slowly walked towards the Stunned Queen Romeria, taking the Sacred Orb away from her so fast that she couldn't even react to it.

"!…. No…" Queen Romeria muttered, frozen in place, knowing that there was nothing she could do to stop this boy from taking the Sacred Orb. The boy turned around with the Orb in his hand and walked away, creating a black vortex in front of him. He walked into it, disappearing into thin air.

'_A tail?'_ Meena thought, spotting a long brown tail trailing out from behind the Blue-haired boy's cape. _'He has a tail… like big brother Raditz…'_

"…Your majesty… I have failed you…" Lady Elena mumbled on her knees, tears trickling down her face. "I've failed in protecting the Sacred Orb…"

"…Elena, there was nothing you could do…" Queen Romeria said, still stunned at the sequence of events. "His power was too great…"

"F…FAERIE LIGHT!" Meena finally gathered herself to cast the heal-all spell on her fallen comrades. The faeries soothed everyone's wounds, bumps, and bruises, healing everyone wonderfully and allowing them to regain consciousness.

"W…what just happened?" Lancar asked, looking around him. "Where did that boy go?"

"Huh? Y…your majesty? Is her majesty safe?" Farleen asked as soon as she regained her consciousness. "Where's our enemy?"

"The Sacred Orb!" Tynave yelled, looking around the room for it. "Where did it go?"

"…You were all incapacitated from the powerful attack unleashed by that Blue-haired boy…" The Queen told everyone, with her head down. "And he also succeeded in taking the Sacred Orb away from us."

"OH NO!" Farleen yelled. "This is horrible! This means…"

"That means they completed their final mission!" Roger exclaimed, with a look of fear in his eyes. "Does this mean that it's a matter of time before those demons take over our universe?"

"No, don't say that… it's not over yet!" Peppita said. "We still have Albel, Miss Maria, and everyone else going after those demons! There's still hope!"

"Yeah, we should get out of here and join up with them as fast as we can…" Lancar said. "Although I'm not sure if we can be of any help… we couldn't even lay a finger on that Blue-haired boy… This must be the guy that old man was talking about back at Airyglyph. His power was beyond anything I've ever seen... I don't think the other guys have a chance of defeating him, either. Damn… who was he, anyway?"

"I… I thought he was a demon…" Tynave said. "There is no way a human could be capable of such power…"

"He was certainly a mysterious young boy…" The Queen spoke. "His power was certainly fearsome, yet I could not feel any evil presence in his soul. He is certainly not of the demon kind."

"Now that I think about it…" Lancar said, holding his head in thought. "He had the same style of fighting as Albel and Raditz… Edarl style, or something like that."

"Yeah! He had a tail, just like big brother Raditz!" Meena said, remembering the boy's tail coming out from underneath his cape. "I saw it! I saw it!"

"What? A tail?" Lancar yelled. "You mean he's a Felinefolk, a Roakian, then?"

"…That…boy…" Lasselle muttered, still crumpled up down at the corner, badly injured. "…he…showed…no…emotion…at all…he…may…not…be…himself…"

"Magistrate Lasselle, you are still alive!" Elena yelled in shock, as she ran over to him to cast a healing spell. Meena quickly rushed towards him as well to help.

"Now that the boy has taken the Sacred Orb from us, the fate of this world, as well as the entire universe, may be in danger." The Queen calmly said, regaining her composure. "Farleen, please inform me of the current situation. Is our Sacred Orb now in the possession of the Demon world?"

"Yes, your highness! Unfortunately, it seems like it's indeed in the demon's possession…" Farleen said. "…We promise to explain everything in detail, your majesty! But right now, we have come here to guide your majesty and others back to a safer place, out of the reach of the demons!"

"We also have to catch up to Albel and others…" Lancar said, turning and bowing to the Queen. "Your highness, we are currently in a critical situation, and must hurry back out to the surface… I can explain everything on the way, if your highness would give us the permission to be the escorts…"

"Interesting. Very well. I shall come with you." The Queen said. "From what I've heard, it seems that there is another group of you who are already on their way towards the Demon world. If that is the case, you must hurry up and join them as soon as possible. Let us be on our way at once."

"Yes, your majesty." Lancar said, as everybody got ready to head back out to Aquios. "Alright then, everyone… let's hurry back!"


	16. Part 16: Chapters 52, 53, 54

**Chapter 52: Settling an old grudge**

As Lancar and others were going through their ordeals at the Sealed Cavern and the Shrine of Kaddan, Albel and his group were heading up the Mountain of Barr in order to get through the Ruins of Barr, Urssa Lava Caves then finally to the hidden Urssa Cave Temple. Albel, Raditz, Clair, Maria, Reen, and Jeiuce all had no idea what to expect inside the Urssa Cave Temple, but there was no look of hesistance or uncertainty in their faces; all of them were focused sorely on the task at hand, which was to get through the dungeon in order to get to the Daemoneum again and save Fayt and Nel, as well as the world from the demon threat. It wasn't in their frame of mind for them to worry about anything else at that very moment.

"Jeiuce, may I ask you something?" Clair politely asked Jeiuce as the group walked up the uphill mountain path. "Would you know anything about our two friends that were captured as the invasion began?"

"I did not take part in it personally, so I could not tell you." Jeiuce replied. "Only those who are in the higher-ups of our ranks were directly involved, such as Romero and Saphiro."

"I… I see…" Clair said, as her voice trailed off. "I was just wondering… if they are both still safe, or if they are still even alive..."

"It is highly unlikely that those two have been killed." Jeiuce told her. "Most of the test subjects are usually kept alive for various reasons… for future experiments, uses, and whatnot."

"That's right…" Maria said. "I specifically remember few humans as well as various other organisms being kept alive in tubes at the Time and Space lab… I saw them as I escaped from the place. What Jeiuce said would explain why I wasn't disposed of after they finished conducting their experiment. Either way, I wouldn't worry about Fayt or Nel… they are most likely still alive."

"Yes, I certainly hope so." Clair said, still worried for Fayt and her best friend.

"W… wait a minute… So you Demons capture us, then do experiments on us there?" Reen asked, a little disgusted by the thought. "That's horrible! What for?"

"It is no different from what you mortals do." Jeiuce said. "You mortals perform experiments on various other kinds that live in your dimension for your own benefit, do you not? No matter what the purpose is, what we are doing is no different from what you do."

"But that's…!" Reen yelled back, but she couldn't really reply to that one.

"Hey, where do you get all the equipments and stuff for the experiments, anyway?" Raditz asked, curious as he always is. "Your kind certainly doesn't look like you'd have so much scientific knowledge… I thought demons… you know… just do demonic, evil stuff… like scare and haunt people!"

"Hmph! You insolent fool! It's just like you mortals to be so ignorant." Jeiuce yelled. "We demons are more intelligent than you foolish mortals think. We could possibly be even more advanced."

"But I find it interesting that your technology seem to be exactly the same as ones in our dimension." Maria said. "How is that possible?"

"We demons are born from souls and spirits in this dimension… after your bodies die." Jeiuce explained. "That is why we essentially have the same knowledge."

"W…what?" Raditz yelled, shocked. "You mean after we all die, we're all going to become demons, too?"

"That depends." Jeiuce said, as he continued his explanation. "If the evil component of your soul has a strong attachment to this world, whether or not the reason be grudge, vengeance, or whatever, then you will be reborn as a Demon."

"So that's how it works." Albel said, finding it fascinating. "So how did you come about then, Demon? What was your reason?"

"There is no reason for me to explain that to you mortals." Jeiuce said, annoyed. "Also, I would have all you mortals shut your trap right about now. We are enemies… After we defeat Saphiro, Asmodeus, and whoever that is behind him, we will become enemies once again. Do not forget that."

"Right." Albel sneered back, sarcastically. "I guess I'll ask to you again after I die, then. I'll probably be reborn as a demon, too."

"Albel… don't say that…" Clair objected, with a sad look on her face.

'_Hmph. It's just that I probably don't have any choice in the matter.'_ Albel thought to himself. He had done way too many evil deeds in this world… and he was certainly driven by the sense grudge and vengence.

_Or am I, still?_ Albel asked himself, as he looked at Clair. Perhaps he was driven by grudge and vengence in the past, but the things were slowly changing. Albel definitely recognized that much.

"Sorry to interrupt, but it looks like we have company." Maria said, as she quickly reached back for her pulse gun. "A LOT of them, at that."

Everybody stopped and looked ahead, to see a swarm of little red dragons blocking their path. There was countless number of them, about 40 of them in total.

"WHOA!" Raditz yelled, shocked by the sight. "We're going to have to fight all of these? Damn… this is just WAY too many!"

"We fought these little dragons two years ago as well…" Maria said, getting into her defensive stance. "A few of them wouldn't be a problem, but it's certainly a big group… this could be trouble."

"Hah, they were nothing back then, and I'm sure they are nothing now!" Albel said, as he unsheathed his katana. "We'll just have few more to play with this time, that's all."

Suddenly, the swarm of little dragons all jumped towards the group aggressively, beginning the battle. Albel easily slashed two of the dragons out of the way in front of him, but three more jumped behind him to peck at him rentlessly with their beak like raging chickens. Albel tried to shake them off, but it proved to be more of a trouble than he expected; they quickly jumped back, and then stung like a bee once again. Maria attempted to control the crowd of dragons by using her Scatter Beam attack, but she only managed to get few of them at a time – the dragons were quick to evade the shots.

"Damn, they're everywhere! OW!" Raditz yelled in pain as one of the little dragons jumped and pecked at his arm sharply. "There is no way I can deal with them all at the same time!"

"Ahh, get these dragons OFF OF ME!" Reen yelled, as she was forced to fly up in order to avoid the onslaught of the little dragons. "At first I thought they were a little cute… but they're really like a swarm of insects! AH! OUCH!"

"Ugh… I certainly wish Farleen was here…" Clair said, doing her best to evade the dragon's attacks and fight them off with her twin daggers. "She would be able to deal with all of them at the same time…" Clair knew that she could cast a runology spell herself affecting a large area like Southern Cross, but it was slow enough for these quick dragons to avoid being hit by it.

"Man, this fight will tire us all out even BEFORE we get to the Daemoneum!" Raditz said as he repelled the dragons around him with his Rift Wave, but they kept coming at him. "AACK!"

"Beh, I've had enough of these little vermins." Jeiuce said, slashing the dragons away with his long spear. "Playtime's over… All of you, keep these things away from me for a little bit. I'm going to decimate them all at the same time."

"You got a plan, demon?" Albel asked, as he had to shield himself from the dragons using his Aura Wall. "I do have to admit that this ain't much fun anymore…"

"What? How are you going to do that?" Reen asked, smacking the dragons away with her Raven Orb. "You know a spell or something?"

"Just do it, you foolish mortals!" Jeiuce yelled. "Unless you want to keep getting pecked at by these things!"

"Alright everyone, let's help him out." Maria said, dashing towards Jeiuce to cover him. "Try to make it quick, Jeiuce. I'm not sure how long we can hold out for."

Clair, Albel, Reen, and Raditz all ran towards Jeiuce to cover him from all directions, acting as human shields. Everybody tried their best to repel the dragons away from Jeiuce as he was casting his spell, so that he wouldn't be interrupted. Finally, after about 30 seconds, Jeiuce finished his casting.

"GREMLIN LAIR!" Jeiuce yelled as a group of 10 green gremlins suddenly emerged from under the ground. They all started ferociously attacking the dragons, releasing countless number of sharp energy sickles towards them. The sickles scattered and cut through every single one of the dragons, taking care of all of them almost instantly.

"WOW, that was amazing!" Reen yelled in praise, amazed by Jeiuce's awesome spell.

"That should be all of them." Jeiuce said, as he dusted himself off and walked ahead. "I'm going on ahead. I don't enjoy wasting my time here like all you mortals do… Stop the needless chatting and focus on the task at hand."

"Heh. Not bad." Albel smirked, impressed by Jeiuce's spell.

"…I'm certainly glad he didn't get to use THAT spell on us when we fought him…" Raditz muttered, as he followed behind Albel, Jeiuce and others.

* * *

The group made their way through the rest of the Mountains of Barr, Ruins of Barr and the Urssa Lava Caves with relative ease. They faced several demons and monsters along the way, but they were powerless to stop the 6 determined warriors focused on making their way through. Eventually, under Albel's lead, they arrived at the door in front of Crosell's Lair.

"This is it." Albel told everyone. "Past this door is the Dragon's Lair, and the entrance to the Urssa Cave Temple is inside one of the caves. Prepare yourselves… we're entering the enemy's main base."

"Yeah, I'm prepared for all that, but…" Raditz muttered. "Did you say _Dragon's Lair_? Don't tell me we're going to have to fight MORE of those little dragons? Arrg…"

"Heh, it's certainly not_ little_." Albel joked. "Looks like some of you fools will be in for a surprise."

"The place we're entering is a completely different place. We're entering the Lair of Crosell, the King of all Dragons on this planet." Clair explained. "This is the first time I'm entering this place, myself."

"The King of Dragons?" Reen asked, a little intimidated. "Hmm, that sounds like trouble…"

"Don't worry, Crosell already knows of me and Albel from two years ago." Maria assured them. "It will not be hostile, I can guarantee you that. You don't have be afraid."

Everyone went through the door to see a large, open cave with stairs leading up to ground where Crosell usually dwells. Crosell had its eyes closed, crouched down as if he was asleep.

"T…THAT'S THE DRAGON YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?" Raditz yelled, surprised as hell. "That's… WAY TOO BIG! And you guys actually fought that thing?"

"A…are you sure he won't be hostile?" Reen asked carefully. "He looks really dangerous..."

"Stop wetting your pants, you cowards. You can rest easy." Albel jeered. "Like Maria said, it's harmless."

"I've heard the legend of the Marquis, but…" Clair said, also astonished by the Dragon's immense size. "But to actually see it in person… it's even more amazing!"

"Alright…" Albel said, walking up to Crosell. "Crosell, we have to enter the Urssa Cave Temple. I know it's forbidden, but we have no choice…"

"…" Crosell did not respond, still crouched down, totally silent.

"Hey!" Albel yelled. "Did you just hear what I said?"

"Wait a minute…" Clair said, walking up to the big dragon. "He's… he's been hurt! I see scars all over his body!"

"Damn… it must be the demons!" Raditz cursed. "Even this dragon probably had trouble dealing with all of them…"

"One second… I will cast a healing spell." Clair said, as she inched closer to Crosell to cast her healing spell.

At that moment, Crosell suddenly opened his eyes in a flash. It quickly got up from the ground and roared out loud, catching everyone by surprise. Then Crosell lifted his back feet, attempting to stamp on Clair.

"CLAIR!" Albel yelled, as he dove in to drag Clair out of the way, just in time. Crosell's feet trampled down hard on the ground, creating a huge crack on the ground and causing a thunderous earthquake throughout the caves. Albel rolled down the stairs with Clair in his arms, successful in pulling her out of the way just in time.

"W… what?" Albel muttered, in shock. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

"Y… you said this dragon wasn't hostile!" Raditz yelled, unsheathing his sword quickly to get ready for battle. "What's going on here?"

"C… Crosell! Your excellency!" Maria yelled, in shock as well. "It is us! The ones who requested your help two years ago! Surely you remember us!"

"…" Crosell stared down at the group with Zombish eyes, and then spoke. "FOOLISH HUMANS… HUMANS… MUST BE ANNIHILATED!"

"What the hell is going on?" Albel yelled, unsheathing his katana as well. "It's me! Have you forgotten? We've trained together over the last two years!"

"…" Crosell stared down as if he didn't hear anything, and then spoke again in menacing voice. "HUMANS… MUST… DIE!"

"He's been possessed." Jeiuce said, taking out his spear to battle. "I feel the demonic aura within him. There is no doubt."

"Huh?" Albel yelled out, astonished. "Possessed, you say?"

Suddenly, a tall, imposing man with short grey hair and mustache dressed in a black cloak emerged from behind Crosell. He immediately looked towards Albel, recognizing him.

"Well well, if it isn't Albel." The man said, holding a long, huge broadsword in his hand. "I certainly didn't expect to see you here. I figured that you were disposed of long time ago…"

"T…that man…" Clair mumbled, slowly recognizing the man. "T… that can't be! He's…"

"W…what?" Albel looked back at the man, his face suddenly getting pale white. "Y… you're…?"

"Long time no see, Albel the Wicked." The man greeted him, walking up closer to him. "The last time I saw you was when I threw you in jail in the Airyglyph Dungeon, wasn't it? I see that they let you out… those weak fools."

"VOX!" Albel yelled, finally sure of who the man is. "H… how can you be here! Y… you are supposed to be dead!"

"Vox?" Maria asked, remembering the name. "That warmonger who was the former Captain of the Dragon Brigade?"

"Hah… Warmonger… I quite like that title." Vox replied, powerful evil aura surrounding his body. "Not that I should take anything from you lowly mortals as a compliment."

"Us… mortals?" Clair asked, quickly realizing that his aura was not of a human. "Y… you've turned into a demon?"

"I think resurrection is a better word, or reborn…" Vox said. "Either way, yes, I am no longer of your inferior kind. I am now one of the demons, free to fulfill any of my uttermost desires."

"Ah, so you all know each other, that is just great." Raditz said sarcastically. "But we also got that BIG DRAGON OVER THERE TO WORRY ABOUT! Hello!"

"In that case, you might as well worry about us together." Vox said. "Because that dragon is of my possession, now. It obeys only my orders."

"Y… you're the one who possessed Crosell?" Albel asked in rage. "Vox, you scum!"

"I must admit, I found it a great pleasure to finally be able to tame the Marquis. It is something I could not do as a lowly mortal." Vox said proudly. "With my power, I am finally able to subdue any enemies who dare stand in my path. I've already thanked those who took away my mortal life… with their death."

"T… that means…" Maria asked. "You must be the one who lead the invasion and the destruction of the Planet Vendeen!"

"Quite correct. I've killed every single one of those lowly beings." Vox said adamantly, turning to Albel. "Now, you're going to be my next victim. It is going to be a pleasure to finally take your life, Albel. I've been waiting for the opportunity for a very long time."

"Hah! Likewise, you snake!" Albel yelled, with a sly smile. "I'll be more than happy to cut you up into little pieces… It's long overdue… I have never forgotten about that time when you ran out on my father, you coward!"

"Ah, Glou. Yes. Contrary to what you believe, I did not abandon the scene out of fear." Vox said with an evil grin. "That was exactly what I wanted to do… I wanted that scum of your father, dead, so that I could finally become the rightful Captain of the Dragon Brigade myself."

"W…WHAT?" Albel yelled out loud in rage. "You scum… you SPINELESS MAGGOT! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"Blame not me, but your sorry excuse of a father." Vox said, with a chuckle. "He had gotten way too soft over the years… he was once great, then as the years went by, he turned into a pacifist… a weak coward. Remember, he was the one who originally planned the invasion of Aquaria… I merely carried out the plan myself as it should have been, because that coward could not."

"W… What?" Clair asked, a little shocked by the fact. "A… Albel… is that true?"

"Yes…that's what Woltar said as well…" Albel said with his head hanging down, and then quickly looked back up sharply at Vox. "But you're wrong, Vox! You're the true coward! You're the one who could not stand up to my father, face to face!"

"Hmph, it matters not. In the end, what mattered was that I became the Captain, and that weak fool of your father was dead thanks to Lord Saphiro." Vox said, jumping high up and getting on Crosell's back. "Speaking of weak fools… I could also say the same of you…you couldn't even defeat those pathetic Aquarians yourself, and now you've joined them? You've become soft like rest of these pathetic mortals. Like father, like son, I suppose."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU BASTARD!" Albel yelled as he furiously charged at Vox and Crosell. "DIE!"

Albel charged from under Crosell to hack away furiously at one of the Dragon's legs. However, although the slashes cut through its legs sharply, Crosell showed no reaction to it. It just dragged its feet back, swung forward and clocked Albel right in his chest, sending him flying back like a bug and crashing down on the ground.

"Damn, the dragon's been possessed for good…" Jeiuce yelled as he swung back his spear and charged it up in flames. He then tossed it high up in the air while yelling "FLAME LANCE!" The flaming spear fell sharply into Crosell's arm, burning through his flesh. However, the big dragon just shook the spear off his arm, unphased.

"PULSE BLAST!" Maria fired repeated shots of pulse blasts towards Crosell's head. Each Pulse Blast burned through its face, but it only phased him for a little bit

"MIRROR SLICE!" Clair yelled as she did series of smooth, fluent slashes onto Crosell's leg. But Crosell was barely affected by it. Raditz jumped up and tried his Twin Slash technique on the Dragon's chest, with similar results. Reen's orb attacks weren't doing any harm, either.

"Heh… futile effort." Vox sneered, as he ordered Crosell to fly up. "Alright, It's time to blow these little bugs away… DOOM RAID!" The dragon flied slightly off the air, then flapped both of its wings with great force towards the party. The resulting gust of wind and shockwave knocked everyone back to the wall, hurting them all badly.

"D…Damn… our attacks can't do anything…" Raditz mumbled in pain, slowly getting up. "This thing's way too big… and so powerful…"

"Crosell's definitely gotten more powerful than before…" Maria said, her eyes still glowing with determination. "But that doesn't mean that we can just give up!"

"Heh… Don't get me wrong… I never said I wanted to give up..." Raditz said, charging towards Vox and Crosell again. "I'm going to keep going until I'm dead! I'm not going just to run from those who stand in my way! HIYAAA!"

"My thoughts exactly." Albel said, also charging at Vox and Crosell once more relentlessly. "Don't think that I'm going to just give up, Vox!"

Raditz and Albel both executed their Twin Slash/Double Slash attack simultaneously to deal sickening slices to Crosell's body, but the big dragon didn't even flinch. It was as if he couldn't even feel any pain anymore.

"Hmm, fools…" Vox muttered, as he raised his long broadsword to mount an attack of his own. He swung back on his sword, and swiped it towards everyone coming at him to create a powerful swirl of energy. The Dragon Brigade Slash attack easily floored everyone again, with the party seemingly helpless against the onslaught of both Vox and Crosell.

"Gwaa… DAMN IT!" Albel muttered clutching his wounds, cursing at his own weakness in not being able to deal any damage to both Vox and Crosell. "That snake Vox… hiding behind Crosell… if he was floored, I would be able to deal with that scum with ease…"

Suddenly, Crosell turned his head towards Clair and opened his mouth wide. A gigantic blast of scorching flames suddenly bursted out of his mouth, as his Supreme Fire Breath homed in on Clair rapidly to engulf her. "Ahhh!…" Clair yelped, with no way of dodging the wide attack. Clair closed her eyes, feeling the red-hot flames rushing closer to her by the split second.

"NO!" Albel yelled, getting a sudden flashback of his father's death. He was about to witness the same scene, and he was once again powerless to do anything just like last time. Albel could only cringe in despair as the fire breath was about to blow Clair away…

"ICE COFFIN!" Jeiuce suddenly yelled out of nowhere, casting his ice-based spell on Clair a split second before the fire breath engulfed her. The Ice Coffin spell encased Clair in a block of ice, protecting her from Crosell's fiery breath. The Ice block eventually melted away against the fire, but succeeded in keeping Clair from receiving any damage.

"Clair!" Albel yelled, rushing over to Clair in concern. "You alright?"

"Y…yes, I'm fine. T…thank you, Jeiuce…" Clair mumbled, surprised but grateful for Jeiuce saving her. "Thank you for saving me…"

"Hmph, don't thank me, I didn't save you because I wanted to." Jeiuce replied coldly. "I only saved you because we're going to need all the help we can get for rest of our quest, and for this enemy."

"We owe you one… but enough talk… our enemy is still standing." Albel commented, as Crosell and Vox flew off the ground again to ready another attack. "Crosell's not feeling any pain… and Vox is attacking while hiding behind him, using him as a shield. Damn, we need to find a way to separate those two… If we take care of Crosell first, then I can take care of that scum Vox."

"Crosell's the main concern… ugh…" Maria said, as she ran back quickly to dodge Vox's Dragon Brigade Slash. "There's got to be a way we can hurt him."

'_What can we do? He's not feeling the effects of any attacks we are doing to his body…'_ Clair thought, dodging Vox's attack. _'Wait a second… that's it… we're not doing any damage from our external attacks. But maybe if we attack him from…'_

"Everybody, I got an idea!" Clair suddenly yelled out to everyone. "Please keep him occupied away from me for a moment. I just thought of something that might work…"

"Huh? What's that?" Reen asked, busy avoiding Vox's attacks. "You think you can hurt him with something?"

"Yes. Please keep Crosell and Vox busy while I charge up the spell." Clair said, raising both of her arms high above her head and putting her hands together. "I can't guarantee anything, but it's the best thing I can think of at the moment…"

"Really? Okay then… what the hell…" Raditz said, stepping in front of Clair. "Let's do as she says, everyone. It's not like we have any better ideas… Let's keep them busy while she does her thing!"

"I don't know what your plan is…" Albel said, stepping aside Clair to guard her. "But I have faith in you. So don't worry about those two, just concentrate on your spell… I'll protect you from their attacks no matter what."

"Thank you, Albel." Clair replied, as she started gathering runological force in her hands. This was a spell she had learned from her father, but she had never used it in actual battle yet. Remembering her father's teaching, Clair focused to channel the forces of all four elements together; Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The channeled force of all elements came together to form an energy orb above her hands, gradually getting bigger and bigger.

"Alright, TAKE THIS!" Raditz yelled as he suddenly leaped high up in the ground, covered in powerful blue aura. "DRAGON HOWL!" Raditz dove in towards Crosell covered in dragon-shaped aura, succeeding in knocking Crosell back with a powerful impact. Maria also kept Vox the big dragon busy by shooting repeated pulse blasts from her gun, while Jeiuce used his Shadow Flare spell to nail both of them with rain of fiery shadow bolts.

"Ugh… you pesky mortals…" Vox cursed, now feeling the pressure of attacks mounted on by all the fighters. "That's enough… it's time to demolish you all! STEEL REND!" Vox's attack floored everyone again, except for Clair who had Albel come in front of her to block the attack.

"Ugh… can't… hold on… for much longer…" Raditz muttered, fatigue and pain starting to really catch up to him. "I can… barely move anymore…"

"S… shit…" Albel cursed, struggling to get up. "I can't… lose…"

"Hmph. How stubborn. Looks like I'm going to need to burn you all away for good…" Vox commented, ordering Crosell to mount another Supreme Fire Breath attack to finish everyone off. However, he had totally forgotten about one person who was able to successfully dodge his previous attack; Reen flew up from behind both Vox and Crosell, readying an attack of her own.

"W… what?" Vox yelled, noticing Reen flying behind her. "There's one that can… fly?"

"Geez, why does everyone get SO surprised whenever they see me flying? That's what my wings are for… Seriously, you evil people are all so stupid" Reen teased, before finally unleashing her attack. "HAIL ORB!" Countless number of energy orbs started showering down from the sky like a hailstorm, every single one of them precisely nailing Crosell on top of his head. Reen's powerful Hail Orb attack succeeded in hurting unexpecting Crosell, as it opened its mouth wide and let out a loud howl "GWROOOOARR!"

Right at that moment, Clair took the opportunity to unleash her charged orb attack.

"EMOTION TORRENT!" Clair threw the big ball of energy orb that was held high above her head right into Crosell's mouth, deep inside his body. The energy ball exploded violently from the inside Crosell's body just a few seconds later, causing him to let out a thunderous roar in pain. With dark smoke coming out from his mouth, Crosell's body dropped to the ground heavily, defeated and lifeless.

"We did it!" Maria yelled. "We got him good!"

"W… WHAT?" Vox yelled, thrown off from Crosell from the exploding impact. "H… HOW DARE YOU… DO THAT TO MY MOST PRIZED DRAGON!"

"He ain't your dragon, you maggot. He never was." Albel sneered, jumping in front of him to get ready for a duel. "Now, we'll see how tough you are when you're grounded. It's time for me to finish you off with my own hands!"

"Beh…" Vox charged towards Albel with a rather unconfident look on his face, knowing fully well that Albel had always been a better sword fighter. He now had to depend on his new Demonic powers to fight him off. He slashed furiously at Albel with his gigantic broadsword, which Albel dodged. After dodging Vox's sword attacks with ease, Albel saw an opening, and countered with one of his own techniques.

"ILLUSION!" Albel yelled as he quickly unleashed 4 blurring slashes in a cross-shaped pattern right on to his body. He then executed two more spinning slashes, as Vox dropped his broadsword and started staggering in the spot, stunned and devastated.

"I… I have been… defeated…? The great demon Vox…defeated by the likes… of these lowly… mortals…?" Vox mumbled, as he clutched the fatal wound on his chest. "GWAAAAAA!" Vox dropped to the ground, dead, as Albel simply unsheathed his sword in victory.

"That was long overdue." Albel said, not showing too much emotion. "The scum Vox, is finally dead for good."

"Whoa… that was… amazing…" Raditz said, amazed by Albel's technique. "What an awesome technique… it was so fast that I couldn't even see it!"

"Hmph." Albel grunted, then immediately turned towards fallen Crosell. "Crosell… is he… dead?"

"Clair's energy attack exploded from inside of his body…" Maria said, examining the lifeless body of Crosell. "There was no chance for him to survive from such a devastating attack from within."

"…" Albel fell silent, as his head sank. Crosell had always been a rather obnoxious and overly proud king of the dragons, but Albel had grown fond of him over the last few years as he trained with him. When it all came down to it, he was a honourable creature who was an invaluable comrade and mentor to Albel. Losing him was a great tragedy to Albel, who was now mourning his lost. Yet another one who was close to him had just been sacrificed to this demon invasion…

"I'm sorry…" Clair apologized, sensing Albel's sadness. "I'm sorry that I had to kill him… I know you didn't want any more sacrifices in this war…"

"Don't blame yourself. We had no choice but to kill him." Albel said quietly, as he turned away from Crosell's body. "Or else he would have crushed us all."

"This is why wars are so unfortunate…" Maria said, also mourning for Crosell's lost. "Countless innocent lives, sacrificed to greed and twisted ambitions of few individuals… We can't allow this to continue… We must end this war, at all costs."

"Yeah…" Reen agreed, with a sad look on her face. "This has all got to stop… now."

"I've been living in peace for most of my life… totally oblivious to this cruel reality…" Raditz muttered, with a grim but determined face. "Now I finally understand what my ancestors and other Federation heroes were all truly fighting for. I always wanted to be a hero who saves the world, but for all the wrong reasons. I've found my true reason now... Screw fame, and all that other crap… I just want all the destruction and meaningless sacrifices like this to stop."

"So let us all go on ahead, then." Jeiuce said, focusing everyone back on task at hand. "Let's go defeat Asmodeus and the man behind him, to put an end to this senseless war. I do not want to see any more useless sacrifices of my fellow demon comrades, myself."

"Alright then. Follow me." Albel said, walking towards to the cave located in the Northeast corner of Crosell's Lair. "The Urssa Cave Temple is this way."

* * *

**Chapter 53: Urssa Cave Temple**

After healing their wounds with Clair and Maria's healing spells, Albel's group continued to the Cave located in the Northeast corner of Crosell's Lair, to reach the entrance to the hidden Urssa Cave Temple. As everyone headed inside, Albel turned to Clair, to ask her something.

"You must hate me now, don't you…" Albel asked with a serious face, seeming pretty down on himself.

"Huh? Why would you say that?" Clair asked, having no idea why Albel would ask her such question. "Why would I hate you now? I do not hate you, at all, for any reason."

"Is that really so…" Albel said, turning away from her, overcome with guilt. "Even after what you heard from Vox? It was indeed my father who originally planned the invasion of Aquaria. It was him who planned for all the suffering and destruction to happen in your land. And I, his son, blindly cooperated only because I longed for a fight…"

"No, you're wrong… it's neither you or your father's fault. It was Vox who actually carried out the plan itself, and he's at fault." Clair argued Albel's claims, shaking her head. "Vox said that your father didn't go along with the plan, for whatever reason. Perhaps he had realized and eventually decided that it wouldn't be good to start a war between our countries."

"But you still don't hate me or my father for harbouring such intentions?" Albel asked. "I slaughtered many of your fellow Aquarians in the war for no reason at all other than simply wanting to fight. What I did was no different from all these demons…"

"Albel, let's just forget about all those things… you have already learned from mistakes of your ways, and besides… we should leave everything that have happened where it rightfully belongs… in the past." Clair said, comforting him with an assuring smile. "I hold no grudge or bad feeling towards anyone from Airyglyph anymore… I just simply want this war happening right now, to end. That's the most important task at hand right now."

"Clair…" Albel said, grateful for Clair's forgiveness and kindness. "Thank you…"

Meanwhile, Maria, Raditz, Reen, and Jeiuce were all examining a monolith that stood before the first door at the Temple. "Hey, you two… come here for sec." Maria called out to them, waving them towards her. "There is a monolith here which says something, but it seems to be in Ancient writing of this planet. Even my Translator can't decipher this… Do you think you can translate it?"

"Sure, let me take a look at it…" Clair said, walking up to examine the monolith herself. "Let's see… hmm… you're right, this is the ancient characters that was used here dating all the way back to the time before the days of Ancient Kingdom of Aquor… just give me a moment, and I should be able to translate it."

"That's great." Maria said in relief. "Take your time."

"Alright, it says…" Clair started reading it out, translating it word by word. "Offer the opposing orb… to the dais… to open the way… But know this: That which is the same… as the orb offered… shall become an indestructible… barrier."

"Huh? What's that all about?" Raditz muttered, confused about its meaning. "Indestructible barrier?"

"It looks as though it is a clue to some sort of a puzzle that exists within this Temple." Clair told everyone. "We will have to keep this in our mind. Let's go ahead."

* * *

Everyone headed through the first door to the interiors of the temple. It was a strangely well-lighted temple, with Altars seemingly scattered everywhere in the large hall. Something flashed in Albel's mind right at that moment once again… _He was here one time, too. _He couldn't remember exactly when, but he definitely remembered this place from some time ago.

"There are Altars everywhere…" Reen said, examining the hall. "And… hey! I can sense demons here, too! Let's be careful…"

"Not surprising, since this is supposed to be our main base of operations." Jeiuce said, stepping forward. "We should be able to take care of the guards, as long as they're not too many of them. Most of the army should be out there in the overworld right now for the invasion…which probably means that the security is probably relatively light right now, compared to before. "

"Alright, let's go. And stay on your toes." Albel said, cautiously walking ahead. "We might run into demons at any time. We'll walk around and see what we have to do to get through it."

Albel and others encountered several demons along the way, which they took care of without any problems at all. After walking around for 5 minutes or so, they discovered more Altars along the way, and also found a gigantic Cauldron with Green energy contained in them blocking their path.

"Hmm… this thing is blocking our path…" Maria said, examining her quad scanner. "Looking at the source of the energy reaction, we need to progress past this thing in order to get to our destination… but how are we going to do that?"

"Destroy them?" Raditz said, giving a hard slash towards one of the cauldrons. "HI-YA… OWWW… this thing is too solid!"

"…Beh…" Albel muttered, shaking his head. "It wouldn't be here if it was that easy to break through in the first place, you fool."

"…Good point…" Raditz agreed, scratching his head in embarrassment.

"Hey everyone, look at this!" Reen yelled, who had been off in the corner examining a treasure chest. "There is an orb here… I can sense great deal of energy emitting from it."

"Hmm, this orb seems to be of composed of element of Air." Maria said, analyzing it with her scanner. "Now I get it… think back to the monolith. It said _'offer the opposing orb to the dais to open the way'_, right? So all we have to do is offer this orb to the correct Altar, and the path should clear. The energy contained inside of these cauldrons seems to be essence of Earth, opposite of Air. So if we offer the orb to that altar over there, it should work."

"Great. I knew that!" Raditz said, smiling shyly with a sweatdrop. "So let's try it."

Maria went over to the nearest Altar to place the Orb of Air on it, and the energy generated from the altar resonated with the energy inside the cauldron, disintegrating the cauldron that was blocking the way and clearing up the path.

"Yay, it worked!" Reen said in excitement. "So that's really how you get rid of them… so all we have to do is find the appropriate orbs and offer it to the right altar… then we should be able to get to the end!"

"Hmph. How elementary for a puzzle…" Albel commented, walking ahead. "Let's continue."

At that moment, 3 demons with wings suddenly rushed at the party to attack them. "We have intruders! Kill them!" One of them yelled as it flew towards the party.

"Hah, don't these guys ever learn? They don't stand a chance against us!" Raditz said confidently, unsheathing his sword to fight. "Well, might as well have a little practice session!"

Raditz jumped up towards the flying demon to strike it with his Twin Slash attack, expecting an easy victory. However, the slashes went right through their body without actually hitting anything.

"HUH? What the hell?" Raditz yelled in shock. "How come I didn't hit them?"

"Beh, this is just like that time with those demons from before!" Albel said, swinging his katana through the demons harmlessly. "We can't hit them at all!"

"What…? Even with my powers? How could they…" Maria asked, surprised at this unexpected turn of events. "How is this possible?"

"These guys are shielded by aerial aura…" Jeiuce said, his Black Sabre attack harmlessly bypassing through the demons. "Could it be because of what it said back there? Didn't it say _'That which is the same as the orb offered will become indestructible'_?"

"The orb we offered at the Altar was of the element of Air…" Clair said, as she fought one of the demons off. "It makes sense… these demons have become indestructible because they are shielded with the same element… just like what the monolith said."

"Shoot, so what can we do, then?" Raditz asked, deflecting one of the demon's attacks. "We can't hurt these demons!"

"I think in times like this, it's better to just run!" Reen said, as she charged her orbs with energy to execute a quick spell. "DEEP MIST!" The deep mist spell disoriented the demons with a thick fog, giving everyone the opportunity to flee from battle and hide from them. "Now, everyone! RUN!" Reen yelled, as she fled from the scene.

"This goes against my nature…" Albel muttered in disgust, as he reluctantly ran away with the others. "Bleh…"

* * *

The party continued through the Urssa Cave Temple by repeating the steps to get rid of the different Cauldrons that stood in their way. They found the orbs from the treasure chests, and then offered them to the right altars to open up their way. They encountered many demon guards along the way, some of which they had to run from because they had the aura of the same element offered to the altar – rendering them invincible. After about an hour of navigating, the party finally arrived at the outside the final door before the target point.

"Here we are. This should be it." Maria said, checking her scanner once again to confirm the energy reading. "My scanner is picking up a great energy reaction from a space-time disturbance. We can probably find the portal to the Daemoneum in the room past this door."

"They may have somebody powerful guarding the gates behind that door… it could be Archdemon, Bahkihous, or perhaps even Saphiro himself." Jeiuce said. "In any case, be prepared, mortals. We probably won't be able to go through here without a fight."

"It doesn't matter. I'm ready for anything." Albel said, going through the door. "Let's go."

Albel and others went through the final door to find themselves in a very wide-open room. There was a small stairway leading to an altar in the middle of the room, which had a small mirror floating on top of it; a mirror that had a strange symbol inscribed on it.

At that moment, Albel froze solid, his face suddenly turning pale.

This was something he had seen before.

"Hey… w… wait a minute… that mirror…" Raditz suddenly muttered, also seemingly familiar with the symbol that was inscribed on the mirror. "That… symbol on the mirror… it looks like…"

"Yeah… that symbol looks like…" Reen mumbled, also recognizing the symbol. "It looks just like the symbol drawn on that mural at Cool!"

Suddenly, Albel turned towards Reen, remembering back to that time when Reen told him the whole story about it at Cool:

'_This is an ancient mural from over 700 years ago! It's a really famous painting, everybody knows about it! They say that a great artist painted this long ago, inspired from the impression that he got from an artifact… an artifact from an ancient race that lived here on the Moore Continent long time ago!'_

Albel also clearly remembered himself getting a strange flashback of the same symbol from sometime in the past at that moment. He knew that he had seen the symbol from sometime before back then, and he was seeing it once again, right in front of him.

"H… how can this be?" Albel asked, totally confused. "How can it be… here? I've seen this… I've seen this in the past…"

"That symbol… is the symbol of the demons." Jeiuce explained, also familiar with the symbol. "It is a symbol of which is said to define the very existence of our kind. Which means that mirror must be…"

"Symbol… of the demons…?" Reen asked, confused. "But the story from Roak was that… it was from one of the artifacts of the ancient Moorians…"

"That's what I thought, too…" Raditz confirmed, with a puzzled look. "But that doesn't explain how Albel's seen it before…"

_No, it didn't explain it._ Albel thought. _It doesn't explain anything_. Albel walked up to the mirror, his heart suddenly pounding rapidly with feeling of nervousness, excitement, and uncertainty. There was something from the mirror that was drawing him closer to it; a strange force that was pulling him in.

"DON'T GO NEAR THAT THING!" Jeiuce suddenly yelled. "If you mortals look at that mirror, you will…"

At that moment, a strong powerful aura suddenly gathered up high above them. A person suddenly materialized out of nowhere from the aura, descending down on them. It was a demon with long white hair, pair of black wings, dressed in a black robe.

* * *

**Chapter 54:Clash withSaphiro**

"Jeiuce, Jeiuce, Jeiuce…" The demon spoke in disappointment. "I always knew that you were somewhat of a rebellious one, but I didn't think you would stoop so low and actually join forces with these mortals. How disappointing."

"S… Saphiro!" Jeiuce yelled, surprised by Saphiro's sudden appearance. "So, you've finally come to face us!"

"Tell me, Jeiuce… why did you rebel against us?" Saphiro asked in menacing voice. "We vowed to create a new world in which us demons would reign supreme… I do not see a reason why you would oppose it. It is not too late… come back to us now, and we may be able forgive you."

"Quiet, you puppet!" Jeiuce yelled back at him, defiant. "You are all mindlessly going along with that man's wishes, not even knowing of what his true intention is. Unlike you, I have integrity… I will no longer blindly follow orders without any meaningful purpose, or be enticed by empty promises… as a matter of fact, it is you, who have stooped so low in serving a man from another world!"

"So what of it?" Saphiro replied coldly. "I do not see anything wrong in serving our _god_… you ARE aware that he is the creator of all, do you not? Look at the power he has granted us, and impossible things that he has made possible for us… he indeed is our creator, our god, without a doubt."

"C… creator?" Maria asked, getting suspicious. "Then, could this person be… someone from the 4D space?"

"You're truly a naïve one, Saphiro." Jeiuce yelled back. "There is no proof that he is our god… he's just using you all for his own benefit!"

"I do not need to listen to your silly jabbering. The fact remains_… you're _the traitor." Saphiro said. "A traitor who have joined with the mortal kind… and this… failure of our project… you all must die!"

"Project? Failure? A FAILURE!" Albel suddenly blew up, in a major state of confusion and frustration. "WHY AM I THE FAILURE? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? Who am I… what do you have to do with me… I know you know the truth… I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION OUT OF YOU, MAGGOT… NOW!"

"Heh… so you're telling me you still do not know of who you actually are?" Saphiro sneered, amused by Albel's cluelessness. "That you are actually of _our _kind?"

"WHAT?" Albel yelled, totally stunned by what Saphiro had just said.

"This boy… is of our kind?" Jeiuce asked, very confused himself. "Explain, Saphiro."

"I do not need to explain the whole story to these lowly mortals myself." Saphiro said, crossing his arms. "I'll just have _you_ tell them, Jeiuce. Tell them… tell about the Demon Creation Project."

"The… DEMON CREATION PROJECT?" Jeiuce yelled, taken by shock. "You're telling me, this boy here is the product of that project?"

"Product…? Project…? Demon?" Clair asked, not grasping it. "I do not understand…"

"Tell me… demon…" Albel, now trembling, asked Jeiuce in a low voice, moments away from finally finding out the truth of his origins. "What was the purpose of this project…"

"The Demon Creation Project… is the Project which was developed by Saphiro and several others of the top authority over 20 years ago…" Jeiuce started explaining. "I do not know of the exact details, but its purpose was to create demons out of mortals who were still alive. It involves splitting the mortal soul into two – good and evil… the evil component of the soul is then somehow transferred into a new vessel, creating a demonic being which would be similar to us. However, I heard that the project indeed ended up as a failure…"

At that moment, everything froze for Albel.

A split soul? Transferred to a new vessel? _He was pure evil? _Albel stood in the spot, motionless, upon hearing of this unbelievable truth.

Clair just turned to look at Albel, speechless. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"For your information, this mirror which is behind me is the very device which enables splitting of the mortal soul." Saphiro informed them, disappearing then reappearing behind the floating mirror. "This is the _Demon Mirror_. Our most precious artifact."

"As I thought…" Jeiuce commented, and then turned to Saphiro to ask him more questions. "So why did it have to be this boy, Saphiro?"

"This boy just happened to be a bonus. Our main subject was a mortal named Glou, from Planet Roak." Saphiro explained. "He was a fighter, his soul flowing with evil… a man who was willing to do anything in order to get stronger. He was easy enough to entice… This kid just happened to be his son he brought along as a sign of loyalty."

At that moment, Albel's eyes opened big and wide. Upon hearing that information, it all suddenly became clear to him… why he felt so close to Roak… why he felt close to Simone… how he had a similar fighting style to Raditz… how him and his father were the only two who were able to wield the Crimson Scourge… why he was such a reckless young boy back in the day… why his soul had always felt _incomplete_… EVERYTHINGmade sense now. Everything.

"Albel... and his father… are originally from Roak?" Raditz asked, stunned. "That does explain a lot of things, but… how did they receive a new vessel?"

"I thought you may already know that, considering how you are Roakian yourself, mortal." Saphiro told him. "The device we used for that was one of _your _technology. The Soul Transfer Device, is the product of the Moorians who are from your planet. It makes it possible for a soul to be transferred from one vessel to another."

"W… What?" Reen asked, remembering back to what Elise told her at Sylvalant Caves. "That means… Elise was also the product of that technology… she said Albel was just like her…"

"Unfortunately, the project turned out to be a complete failure." Saphiro continued. "Glou's mission was to retrieve the OPA named the Sacred Orb from this planet… that was our pact. However, even after many years, he failed accomplish his mission… as a matter of fact, his evil soul was tainted with the good upon spending time on this planet. And the same goes for this boy… they both turned _soft. _I had no choice but to take his life, as he had broken the pact."

"So that's why Albel's father originally planned for the invasion of Aquaria…" Maria commented. "It all makes sense."

"… Why did you want our Sacred Orb?" Clair gathered herself, to ask Saphiro the question. "What purpose does it serve you?"

"Back then, I merely wanted it for my own benefit. It was said to be an object containing great power… I was fascinated by its potential. I needed Glou to retrieve it, as the holy aura from the Shrine prevented me from getting it myself." Saphiro said. "But now, the situation has changed… It is needed by our god in order for him to grant us our wish of the great demon world."

"This 'god' again, huh…" Raditz muttered, unsheathing his sword. "Well, all of this doesn't matter, anyway. All we need to do is kill you and this so-called 'god' your working for. Problem solved!"

"Yeah, straight and simple." Maria said, taking out her phase gun. "All we have to do is take _you_ out, Saphiro! And we can do it… your 'gift of god' is no longer of any use with me here!"

"Hmph. So it was indeed you mortals who killed Romero, after all." Saphiro said, as the fiery Flamberge sword appeared in his hand. "I do not know how you were able to do so, but it matters not… I do not need to be invincible to kill you mortals. My powers are more than sufficient enough for that… you have no chance against a great demon such as I."

"You're the one who divided my soul… you're the one who killed my father and mother… and the reason behind all my misfortunes…" Albel said, as he stepped in front of everyone and unsheathed his Crimson Scourge Katana. "You're the cause of it ALL… there is no way I can forgive you for all this… I'm going to make you pay, right here, right now. PREPARE YOURSELF!"

"Hmph, you talk big for such a miserable failure." Saphiro taunted, as a powerful aura surrounded him. "Failures like you should have been disposed of long time ago. You can die, along with this traitor and the rest of these mortals!"

"GYAAA!" Albel let out a battle cry, as he charged towards Saphiro, with Raditz following right behind him. Saphiro simply deflected away both of their sword strikes, then knocked them back a bit with a big slash. As Albel and Raditz tried to regain their balance and go at him again, Saphiro yelled "DEMON FANG!" as he swung his sword towards them in a rapid motion. The powerful ground energy wave attack knocked both Albel and Raditz down to the floor upon impact.

"ENERGY BURST!" Maria yelled as she gave it all she's got with her phase gun, with its energy output raised to max. The large energy beam blasted towards Saphiro to engulf him, but Saphiro created a force field around himself to neutralize the beam attack with ease.

"DEMON LIGHT SPEAR!" Jeiuce ran towards Saphiro to execute a powerful spinning thrust upwards at him. However, the attack went right through Saphiro who had deceived Jeiuce with an illusive image of himself. Saphiro reappeared in behind Jeiuce, and made a sickening slash across his back. "GWAAA!" Jeiuce screamed in pain, as Saphiro's scorching Flamberge sword sliced and burned right through his skin. Jeiuce dropped to the floor, knocked out.

"Hmph, pathetically weak, Jeiuce. I'm disappointed." Saphiro taunted, looking at fallen Jeiuce. "That is why you were of an inferior rank…"

"HEALING!" Clair immediately casted her healing spell on Jeiuce, to heal his life threatening wound. "Are you alright?"

"W… why…" Jeiuce asked Clair, mad at himself for being beaten by Jeiuce and for being helped by Clair. "Why do such foolish thing like heal me?"

"Consider it a favour returned." Clair said, turning towards Saphiro. "He is strong… much more than that other demon… we're really going to have to be careful."

"Heh, now you have these mortals actually HEALING you, Jeiuce? Pathetic." Saphiro insulted him with a cocky grin. "Watching a demon like you cooperating with mortals… it's making me sick!"

"FLYING GUILLOTINE!" Clair yelled as she tried her long-range attack with both of her daggers. Saphiro stood in one spot without moving an inch, and picked out the precise time to hit the spinning daggers away in front of him with one swift slash before the attack could hit him.

"FLARE ORB!" After flying above Saphiro, Reen charged her orbs in massive fire energy, and then threw it towards Saphiro to blow him away. But Saphiro simply stuck his Flamberge sword out to absorb the Fire attack, and then jumped and slashed upwards while yelling "AIR RAID!" The energy waves emitted from Saphiro's sword knocked Reen up in the air first, then sent her crashing right down to the ground.

"A…ahh…" Reen groaned on the floor, badly hurt by the attack. "REEN!" Raditz quickly ran over to feed her a magical blueberry before she could pass out, healing her wounds a little and saving her from passing out completely.

"GYAA! TAKE THIS!" Albel yelled while charging at Saphiro again, pressuring him with continuous rapid slashes from his katana. Saphiro could only deflect the attacks back, being pushed back by Albel's flurry of attacks. Albel suddenly saw an opening, and used his claw arm to swipe at him three times in total while yelling "HAND OF DOOM!" The attacks successfully wounded Saphiro, who staggered back in pain.

"A… ack … how did the failure like you… get so strong…" Saphiro cursed, surprised by Albel's power. "How dare you wound me… you're going to pay for this! LIGHTNING FEATHER!" the Lightning Feather attack encased everyone in a large area of electric shock, with Saphiro's black feathers flying around everywhere. The devastating attack shocked and burned everyone, flooring them all in near incapacitated state.

"Too… strong… ughh…" Jeiuce stuttered, as he tried to get up and failed. "His power… is… surreal…"

"It sure is. It's the power of gods, granted by the great one himself. You never had a chance." Saphiro said, as he flew high up in the sky, with a symbol flashing on his forehead. "Now, I shall use this power to disintegrate you all into nothing!" Saphiro gathered immense energy in front of his forehead, with his black feathers floating everywhere around him.

"T… that power…" Maria mumbled, helplessly down on the floor. "It's the… destruction… gene…"

"BEGONE!" Saphiro yelled as he finished gathering up the energy in front of his forehead and prepared to unleash it toward the party. "ETHREAL…"

"MAX SHOCKWAVE!" A large wave of energy suddenly interrupted unsuspecting Saphiro before he could unleash his Ethereal Blast attack, hitting him from behind. Saphiro was knocked back down the ground in pain, completely caught off guard.

"STAR FLARE!" Another voice yelled, as the powerful energy of the stars engulfed the grounded Saphiro. Saphiro covered himself in desperation as the shower of light energy burned some of the skin off his body.

"FAERIE LIGHT!" A holy light engulfed Albel and others who were down, healing and soothing their wounds and allowing them to get back up to their feet.

"Phew. Looks like we made it just in time." Roger said, as Lancar, Peppita, Tynave, Farleen, and Meena all stood beside him in their battle stances. "You guys alright?"

"We're all good, thanks to you guys…" Maria thanked them, turning towards Saphiro who was slowly getting up from the ground. "Am I ever glad to see you guys… we needed you here more than ever."

"Looks like the tide has turned, Saphiro!" Albel yelled at the demon, as he walked up to Saphiro with confidence. "We have you down… and now I'm going to finish you off for good, maggot!"

"G… gwaa…" Saphiro groaned in pain, as he stood back up to fight once again. "I didn't think there would this many more of you… you caught me off guard… ugh… it matters not… I'll just have kill you all!"

"PALM OF DESTRUCTION!" Albel shot out an energy blast out from his claw arm to knock Saphiro back with its impact. Tynave took that opportunity to lunge at Saphiro, yelling "SAKURA ATTACK!" She executed a blurring combination of powerful punches and kicks all over his body, with cherry blossoms floating everywhere around her. She finished the attack with an energy blast of her own, grounding Saphiro once again.

"FAERIE FRIEND! COME ASSIST ME!" Peppita yelled, as she created a large stuffed animal with her magical powers. Peppita went on to execute a string of attacks, which the stuff animal mimicked. The two of them hammered away at Saphiro together, sending him staggering back.

"Let's go, everyone! This is our chance!" Lancar said, as he dashed forward to attack. "We have him reeling! Let's all pound him at the same time!"

Everyone except Meena followed Lancar, surrounding Saphiro and dashing in from all directions to gang up on him in order to finish him up for good. But Saphiro slowly gathered his Flamberge in massive energy, readying a counterattack of his own.

"Heh… you mortals… got… overconfident…" Saphiro muttered with a grin in his face, as he struck his charged-up sword down on the ground in front of him. "DEMONIC CIRCLE!" The attack created a large circle of powerful shockwave around him, blasting everyone back and downing them all for good. The impact of the attack was so great that the ground he executed the attack on eventually gave way, creating a large hole in the ground. Saphiro had just defeated the party with one single counterattack.

"U…ugh…" Clair mumbled, nearly fainting. "N… no…"

"I must admit… the strength of you mortals… were beyond anything I could have imagined… for a moment I thought… I may… actually lose…" Saphiro said, clutching the wound of his chest and walking up towards the downed party. "You have fought admirably… but it all ends here. I'm going to make you suffer… and BURN YOU ALL TO YOUR FIERY DEATH!"

_Get up! Get up!_ Albel told himself, his mind getting hazier by the second. He had to do something, or Saphiro was going to kill them all.

Saphiro charged his hand up in massive fire energy, readying his final attack. After a few seconds, he pointed his hand out towards everyone, and yelled "DEMON SCORCHER!" A large wave of scorching fire came rushing in towards everyone, about to engulf them all in the same fashion as it engulfed Glou, many years ago.

'_! NO!'_

Right at that moment, Albel's eyes let out a flash, and suddenly turned blue in colour. The power of the legendary Seven Stars manifested from within him, as he was now shielded in powerful blue aura. "EEEYAAA!" Albel let out a loud cry, as he dove in right INTO Saphiro's flame attack. Albel's aura around him dissipated the fire attack, as he went right through it and then made a powerful thrust right into Saphiro's midsection. "GWAAAAA!" Saphiro yelled out in extreme pain, as Albel's Crimson Scourge Katana went right through his flesh, out to his back.

"K…ka…kaaa…." Saphiro stuttered, impaled by the katana. "Y… you… how…"

Albel pulled the sword back from his body, and Saphiro staggered backwards, about to fall any minute. Ironically, Saphiro staggered right to the large hole he had made from his own attack. Albel took that opportunity to strike him with his katana again, knocking him back into the pit.

"AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG………." Saphiro screamed as he fell down the dark bottomless pit, down to his doom. The battle was over.

"I… I got him…." Albel weakly dropped to his knees, exausted and overcome with emotion. "That's it… he's done for…. for good… I did it…"

"Ah… FAERIE LIGHT!" Meena had been paralyzed with fear the whole time, but finally regained her composure to heal everybody up with her powers.

"Albel… you did it…" Clair said, rushing over to help him up. "You defeated him. That was… Amazing."

Albel stood there for a second and thought to himself about what he had just accomplished. He had just defeated Saphiro, his archenemy who had pretty much ruined his entire life. He had just avenged his father's death as well after all these years. _So this is the feeling of revenge that I had consumed me for all these years… _Albel thought. Yes, he had indeed just accomplished his lifelong goal of revenge. But how did he feel now?

Albel felt… empty. Although Saphiro was dead, _his father or mother wasn't going to come back. Everyone who had already been sacrificed wasn't going to come back_.

In the end, taking revenge did not accomplish a thing.

"Albel… that energy that manifested in you…" Raditz went over to tell him. "It must be… the legendary power of the Seven Stars… I thought it was only a legend… I can't believe I just witnessed it. So you really ARE of us Roakians…"

"I don't have a clue about what you are talking about…" Lancar said, crossing his arms. "But I'm glad it kicked in… if it wasn't for Albel, we would have all been dust by now."

"…" Albel just stood there quietly, thinking back to everything that he had learned about himself moments ago.

"Hey, what's wrong, Albel?" Lancar asked. "You're so quiet… You finally avenged your father… I thought you would be a little more excited."

"Well, we found out shocking things while you guys were gone, too." Reen said, trying to console Albel. "And it wasn't exactly good news for Albel…"

"We might as well tell them… I think they deserve to know." Maria said. "Here's what happened…"

Maria told Lancar and others about origins of Albel; how he was part of the Demon Creation Project, how he was originally from Roak, and about how his soul was split and put into a new vessel. Everyone was dumbfounded by the news, finding it all hard to believe.

"Albel's soul… was split?" Peppita asked, shocked. "And his soul is of pure evil? I don't believe it… no way…"

"No. Albel's soul is definitely not pure evil, no matter what Saphiro did to him." Clair said. "And no matter what happened in the past, Albel's Albel… it doesn't change a thing. The person that we see right now is the only Albel. Not anyone else."

"Yeah, I agree!" Roger said. "Who cares about what happened before! The Albel we all know and love is standing right here in front of us!"

"Well said." Lancar said. "Sure, he may have his flaws, but so do the rest of us. So he isn't really any different from rest of us."

"You were forced to become a guinea pig of an experiment, against your own will…" Maria said to Albel. "I definitely know how that is like, Albel… But I learned on my last journey with all of you that you can't dwell on it forever. Sometimes we just have to accept the fact and move on, and learn to appreciate whatever positives it left us… For example, in my case, if I wasn't the subject of Dr. Leingod's symbological genetics project, we wouldn't have been able to fight those 4D beings together, and those executioners may have killed us…"

"Plus, if it wasn't for all these things, we all wouldn't have met, right?" Reen said cheerfully. "We should all be glad for that! I'm really glad I was able to meet everyone!"

"That's right." Clair agreed with a smile. "Perhaps all this was destiny…"

"Alright. That's enough." Albel said quietly, finally raising his head. "You can all stop. What matters is that I finally know of my own past… and that's good enough for me. Like Maria said, I'm moving on… Our journey is not over yet… remember that."

"… Anyhow, Saphiro is now dead." Jeiuce said. "So now we can proceed to the Daemoneum as we planned."

"Yes, most definitely." Maria said. "Anyways, Lancar… Peppita… and everyone else… welcome back. So I am assuming that her majesty and the Sacred Orb were safely guided back to the Lazeria? "

"Oh, that…" Roger muttered. "Well Miss Maria… you see… her majesty is safe, but…"

"…We lost the Sacred Orb." Lancar finished the line for him. "At the Shrine of Kaddan, We encountered a Blue-Haired boy of unimaginable power… he took us all out in a flash, and took the Sacred Orb for himself."

"…Blue-Haired boy?" Albel asked him. "You mean… the same boy that Woltar was talking about back at Airyglyph?"

"Yeah, I'm assuming that was the same guy as this one." Lancar said. "What's more… he had a style of fighting which was similar to you and Raditz… Edarl style, I think you call it?"

"WHAT?" Raditz asked, stunned by the information. "He fought using the Edarl style? Man… it seems to getting really popular these days… first Albel, and now this guy? Something is definitely fishy here…"

"I saw a tail too!" Meena told him. "He had a tail like you, big brother!"

"A tail? Then I guess he is a Roakian Felinefolk just like me…" Raditz said. "But why would he be working for the demons? Hmmm…"

"Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's go on ahead to the Time and Space Lab." Maria suggested. "We should hurry… they now have everything they were looking for, and we don't know what's going to happen, now... Let's go and stop them before its too late."

"Alright. Offer your relic on that Altar over there." Jeiuce said, pointing to the altar in the middle of the room. "The portal from here should take us to the Time and Space Lab."

Maria took out the 'Eye of the Truth" and offered it to the altar. The energy emitted from the "Eye of the Truth" reacted with the space in front of the altar, creating a large black vortex like the one they had went through at Roak. Everyone jumped in one by one, transporting to the Time and Space Lab to finally confront Asmodeus and the 'God' who had been behind it all.


	17. Part 17: Chapters 55, 56, 57

**Chapter 55: Demon King Asmodeus**

Through the black vortex created by the Eye of the Truth, Albel and others were able to transport straight to the entrance of the Time and Space Lab. Before the party could gather themselves to check out the surroundings, they were quickly taken notice of by about half dozen of Demon guards who were guarding the entrance point.

"W… WHAT? MORTALS?" One of the demon guards yelled, totally taken by surprise. "H… how the hell did they get in here without our confirmation?"

"H… how! DISPOSE OF THESE INTRUDERS AT ONCE!" Another demon guard yelled, signaling others to rush towards the party. "And activate the security alarm!"

"S… stop, my fellow brothers!" Jeiuce quickly rushed forward to plead to his fellow demons. "Listen well to my words! Asmodeus is a puppet, being manipulated by another being who claims to be god… a man who is only using all of us for his own purpose! We must not fight each other, or fight the mortals… what we really need to do is to join together and overthrow those tyrants!"

"E… eh? Jeiuce? You're… with these mortals?" One of the demon guards asked, confused. "What nonsense are you speaking? How dare you speak ill of Lord Asmodeus?"

"And why should we listen to YOUR words?" Another demon guards sneered, getting ready to attack. "You have just lost all credibility and respect by joining up with those lowly beings! You have defiled our demon race by doing so!"

"You do not understand, it's the only way we can defeat - " Before Jeiuce could finish his sentence, one of the guards charged at him, getting ready to slash at him with his sword.

"CRESCENT MOON FLASH!" Albel yelled as he quickly swung his Crimson Scourge forward in a wide arc to send a crescent moon-shaped energy wave towards the rushing demon. The energy wave vertically sliced the demon in half, a split second before he could hit stunned Jeiuce with his attack.

"Forget it, your people will not listen to us. They will not be convinced." Albel told Jeiuce, stepping up to battle rest of the demon guards that were surrounding them. "Which means that we're just going to have to force our way in."

"But… Alright. Very well." Jeiuce initially hesitated, and then reluctantly agreed. "I suppose we have no other choice."

"KILL THE TRAITOR, AND THE REST OF THE MORTAL INTRUDERS!" One of the other five guards yelled, signaling everyone to attack the group. The guards jumped high in the air towards Albel and Jeiuce, preparing to strike down on them with their sword.

"TWIN SLASH!" Raditz yelled as he quickly jumped up to dispatch one of the guards before he could strike downwards. "This is foolish! You're not the ones we want to fight!"

"BLACK SABRE!" Jeiuce executed his spell to send a deadly dark energy disc towards two other demons who happened to be lined up. The energy disc easily sliced through the two demons, cutting them in half from the torso. "Rest in peace… please do not think ill of us…"

"HWAH!" Roger grunted as he tossed one of his chained Axes swiftly towards another demon. The Axe decapitated his head before he could react, as it dropped down and rolled along the floor.

"DIVINE… WRATH!" Tynave rushed toward the last demon to execute the maneuver taught to her by Nel. With a flash, Tynave proceeded to deliver a series of bone-crushing punches and kicks to the demon at a blurring speed. Before the demon could realize what had just hit him, Tynave thrusted her claw upwards to hit him with a jumping uppercut, finishing him off.

"That's all the ones here. Let's get out of here before more of them come after us." Albel said while unsheathing his sword, determined to continue forward without a moment's hesitation. "Alright, where do we go from here?"

"I know the way around a little, from my escape from the lab." Maria said, pointing towards the door ahead of her. "Past that door, we'll find a room with stairs leading up to the next floor. The containment lab is located on floor 5, but I do not know much more than that..."

"This lab has 10 floors in total, and like the woman said, the main containment lab for subjects is located on floor 5. You'll most likely find your captured comrades in there." Jeiuce explained. "We should be able to find Asmodeus at the top floor, where the main research facility is located. The security alarm disables all elevators, so we have no choice but to take the stairs."

Suddenly, at that moment, an evil voice from above interrupted them.

"Hahahaha… you fools do not need to make your way all the way up top to find me…" The voice sneered, as a demon materialized out of thin air above them. "As the owner of this facility, I think it is only proper that I greet you visitors at the entrance, instead. The entrance to your eternal damnation!"

"That voice…" Jeiuce said, as he slowly raised his head to look up. "So he's come for us…"

Everybody looked up, to see a menacing red-coloured demon descending down from above. The demon had the curved horns on both side of his head, with a long, arrow headed tail trailing from behind him. It looked just like a generic devil that one might expect from those old Earth demon stories.

"I have lost all contact with both Romero and Saphiro…" The demon said, as he descended down to the floor. "I am assuming that it was all your doing, if you were able to come all the way here. I must admit that's a quite an impressive feat."

"W… who is this guy?" Roger asked, pulling out his axes to get ready for the battle. "Another one of those top-rank demon henchmen?"

"No. You are standing before the ancient King of this dimension." Jeiuce explained, as he stepped forward. "This is Asmodeus. The one that is responsible for manipulating our entire world into starting this war."

"So THIS is the Demon King Asmodeus? The same one from 700 years ago?" Raditz asked, sensing a powerful, evil aura like no other emitting from him. "So I guess history is about to come full circle…"

"Hmph. So I guess the rumours about you were true, Jeiuce. You indeed ARE a traitor." Asmodeus sneered, as he slowly walked towards the party. "By betraying us, you have defiled the name of our great, honourable demon kind. And what's worse… you have even decided to cooperate with these mortals! This is all truly despicable, Jeiuce… Do not think for a second that such treachery will go unpunished."

"You're the one who have defiled the name of our great demon kind, Asmodeus!" Jeiuce retorted, fuming with anger. "Abusing your title and power to mislead us into this foolish war… and also by shamelessly serving someone of another being… you're truly nothing but a puppet!"

"Could you not speak any more foolishly? Do you even know of who we are serving?" Asmodeus asked. "He is the god of this world… the creator of all. His orders are absolute. He has promised us a new world where us demons will rightfully reign supreme, and all mortals were to be exterminated in the process."

"You've gone mad, Asmodeus. You actually _believe_ that he is our god? You believe such nonsense?" Jeiuce yelled back angrily. "That is ridiculous… he is no less a mortal than the ones you see here. His goals are not realistic, nor logical… can't you see that he is using you for his own benefits?"

"I am the living proof that he is indeed our god. As you can see, his greatness has granted me with second life, godlike powers, and have made other impossible things possible." Asmodeus explained. "Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his decision in annihilating such despicable kind from this world… it is 700 years overdue, and now, we will finally be able to achieve that goal."

"Whatever this imposter may claim, we are the ones who defeated the REAL creator of this world two years ago." Maria said. "And it was back then we learned that all beings are strong enough to freely live on their own and make their own decisions, as they please. No one, even the creator, have the right to make the decision on whether we should live or die!"

"What blasphemy… So… you indeed ARE the ones who have committed the unforgivable sin…" Asmodeus said, as he slowly stepped up. "First, your kind entered our world to ambush me 700 years ago, and now, you even defy the will of your creators, your own gods… you're all of the same despicable race which commits such acts of ruthless aggression, and that is exactly why your kind need to be eliminated! Such crimes cannot go unpunished…"

"… It's true that it was our people who ambushed you to retrieve the virus from your body, but there are bad people among any race…" Raditz said with a serious face, as he stepped up to speak to Asmodeus face to face. "And our ancestors had made sure those criminals from Fargett paid for their crimes back then. Besides, it still doesn't justify how you still invaded our world many years before that, and how you tried to destroy our entire world and kind! YOU were the ruthless aggressors, not us!"

"Wait a minute… you're…" Asmodeus suddenly froze, staring closely and carefully at Raditz. "You're… YOU'RE THE ONE WHO… KILLED ME 700 years ago!"

"No, I'm not. I couldn't ever measure up to the great Ratix Farrence, the one that had slayed you 700 years ago…" Raditz said, first looking down on the floor in thought, then looking sharply back up right into Asmodeus' face. "But I, Raditz Farrence, his descendent, will do whatever it takes here and now to stop you once again! And this time, we shall purge you from this world for good!"

"Yeah! It was you people who nearly wiped out our Featherfolk kind from Roak 700 years ago!" Reen yelled as she stepped up beside Raditz, more determined than ever. "I won't let such genocide… such tragedy, happen to our world ever again!"

"I see… so you're the descendents of those from 700 years ago…." Asmodeus commented with a sly smile. "Perfect. By killing you all, not only will our wish of great Demon world come true… I'd also be taking my revenge! HAHAHAHA!"

"Heh, a fool who is driven by revenge and selfish goals…" Albel said with a grin, realizing that he was once guilty of that, as well. He had finally realized how foolish he was back then, and how much his purpose had changed now. Albel took one quick glance at Clair, and then stepped up and unsheathed his katana to fight. "That is exactly what's going to be your downfall… I now know that there is no way we will lose to the likes of you. So cut your crap, and bring it, maggot!"

"Hahaha… I've also had enough listening to your nonsense." Asmodeus said, as the aura around his body grew bigger and more powerful. "Well then, I suppose I should prepare my final offering to the god in light of our new Great Demon World. AND YOU SHALL BE THAT VERY OFFERING OF WHICH I SPEAK! DIE!" Right at that moment, Asmodeus quickly thrusted his palm forward, to shoot out a massive blast of energy.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Albel yelled as everyone quickly jumped out of the way to avoid the large energy blast. As the blast rocked the floor of the Time and Space Lab with massive impact, Albel quickly rushed forward to shoot out his palm right in front of Asmodeus. Albel yelled "PALM OF DESTRUCTION!" as his energy attack blasted Asmodeus and sent him flying backwards. Before he could hit the wall, Lancar rushed at him to execute a long string of powerful spin kicks to juggle him high in the air. Before Asmodeus could even have a moment to gather himself, Clair ended the combination attack by jumping up and grabbing Asmodeus to drive him back down to the ground while yelling "SPICULE!" Clair drove Asmodeus' body right into the ground while being surrounded by fire, creating a spectacular explosion upon impact. Clair jumped right back into her ready stance, as Asmodeus laid down in the rubble, motionless.

"Did we get him?" Lancar asked, as he walked up to the pile of debris that Asmodeus was in. "We hit him with all we got there…"

"We have surely dealt great damage to him…" Clair said, as she remained in her ready stance to wait for Asmodeus to get up. "If he is able to get up, then one more string of attacks from us should be able to finish him off for good. Everyone, be ready."

"Man, that was EASY!" Roger yelled in triumph, as he pumped his fist to celebrate. "Heh, and THIS was the head honcho? What a joke…he was so weak that you guys didn't even need my help this time!"

"Incompetent mortals… you don't even know the kind of power we are up against." Jeiuce said, as he raised his voice to yell to Asmodeus. "Stop fooling around, Asmodeus… get up and fight us for real."

"Heh, not bad, Jeiuce. You were smart enough to not fall for it unlike rest of these mortals…" Asmodeus said to shock of everyone, as he simply jumped back up from the rubble, unharmed. "You're a demon, after all."

"S… shit…" Raditz stood in the spot, frozen with fear. "That didn't do anything to him, at ALL!"

"Beh…" Albel grunted, as grasped his katana even more tightly. "This will be tough…"

"Show us your real power, Asmodeus. There is no reason for you to waste time." Jeiuce yelled out, as he stepped up to fight him. "Show us your real form."

"Heh, I was looking to have some fun first…" Asmodeus sneered, as he dusted himself off. "But I guess you all can't wait for your deaths. Very well then… I SHALL SHOW YOU MY TRUE POWER!"

As soon as he finished his sentence, Asmodeus began gathering tremendous amount of energy around his body as he slowly grew bigger in size. The ground started rumbling violently, as his horns, muscles, and fingernails all grew much bigger. A huge evil eye suddenly appeared in his midsection, as an Omega sign also appeared on his forehead. After it was all set and done, all the fighters stood back in fear, not knowing of what kind of power to expect from this intimidating 10-feet tall demon.

"This… might not have been… such a good idea… Jeiuce…" Reen trembled, stepping back in fear of this new, powered-up Asmodeus. "gulp"

"If we are going to defeat him, we would have had to fight his true form sooner or later." Jeiuce said, as he pointed out his spear towards Asmodeus to prepare himself. "We might as well fight it right away and get it over with."

"He's right. If we can't defeat him as this state, then we most likely will not be able to defeat whoever is behind him." Maria agreed, as she got her gun ready. "And believe in yourselves… we can defeat him. Just think about all the enemies we have been able to defeat so far."

"That's right!" Raditz also agreed, his eyes locked on Asmodeus in determination. "If our ancestors were able to defeat him before… we can do it as well!"

"Heh heh… if you think that I am the same as 700 years ago, you're sorely mistaken." Asmodeus said as he gathered energy in his palms. "Now, get ready to witness the true 'gift of god'… the power which is not of this world!"

"You think that is going to scare anyone? All that have fallen before me have all claimed the same crap as you!" Albel yelled, as he started charging towards Asmodeus full speed. "And you will suffer the exact same fate as them! EYAAAA!"

Before Albel could slash him, Asmodeus quickly slid back to evade his attack, then hit him away with a powerful double-handed energy blast all the way back to the wall. Jeiuce took this opportunity to thrust at Asmodeus with his spear, but Asmodeus again simply evaded it and grabbed the spear from the side. Jeiuce struggled to get his spear free with no avail; instead, Asmodeus tossed the spear to the other side of the room along with Jeiuce, sending him right into Albel who was struggling back up. With a sickening crash, the two went down, badly hurt.

Clair, Tynave, Raditz and Lancar all dashed towards Asmodeus to attack him, surrounding him from all sides. After evading all their attacks, Asmodeus hit them all back to the wall by emitting a wide ring-like energy from around him. Roger and Peppita both tried their Flying Torpedo and Dream Hammer attack respectively, but they both missed Asmodeus who was quicker than anyone had ever expected from a monster his size. Asmodeus then simply kicked them both back, as if he was kicking away a soccer ball.

"GRAVITY BULLET!" Maria yelled as she shot out a large, slow-moving energy ball towards Asmodeus from behind. The energy ball hit the demon multiple times, and succeeded in knocking Asmodeus couple of feet back. Furious, Asmodeus GRABBED the energy ball, and tossed it back towards Maria. In surprise, Maria partially evaded it, but it still sent her flying back down to the floor. Asmodeus took that opportunity to lunge at Maria who was down hurt, but Maria made a desperate counter at the last second with Laser Blast, by shooting a laser beam around in front of her that exploded upwards to knock unsuspecting Asmodeus back down temporarily.

"Heh… not bad for such a frail little mortal…" Asmodeus sneered with a sickening smile, not hurt too badly from Maria's attack. "I can see why you were asked to be captured…"

"Ugh… his strength is… unbelievable…" Maria mumbled while holding her side, trying her best to get back up to her feet. "Is he… also powered up by our genes…?"

"METEOR SWARM!" "HAIL ORB!" Right then, Farleen and Reen both used their attacks that they had been charging the whole time. Furious shower of Meteors and Hail Orbs fell on top of Asmodeus, which were able to stun him in the spot for a little while but not enough to deal significant damage to him. Annoyed at the combination attack, Asmodeus countered with his Burst Eruption move, in which he slammed the ground in front of him with his fist. Two powerful blasts of energy geysers suddenly erupted in front of both Farleen and Reen, who had been standing many meters away from him. Both were knocked away by the powerful geyser of energy, down on the floor and badly hurt.

"Ugh… You're gonna have to do better than that!" Albel struggled back up, and yelled to once again relentlessly charge at Asmodeus. "DRAGON ROAR!" Albel shot out 5 blasts of red energy that was shaped like and charged with the spirit of the dragons. Asmodeus had to struggle in parrying off the energy blasts, but succeeded in doing so. He immediately countered by charging shoulder-first into tired Albel, sending him back down to the floor.

"You pests are actually much stronger than I expected…" Asmodeus said huffing for breath, quite tired out himself with fending off all those relentless attacks. "But it's clear that my powers are far beyond those of yours. Now, let me end all of your lives instantly in appreciation of your efforts." Asmodeus suddenly charged a large, red fireball above his head which grew bigger and bigger. "HELLFIRE SPREAD!" At his command, the large ball of fire exploded, sending smaller balls of deadly fire towards everyone.

"Ugh… FLASH WHIRL!" Raditz struggled back in just in time to execute his own maneuver, sending scattering balls of energy that managed to home in on all of Asmodeus' fireballs and neutralize them just before it hit everyone.

Meanwhile, Meena could do nothing but stand back and watch the party struggle against the wrath of Asmodeus. Feeling that she needed to do something to help, Meena kneeled down to pray, using her Fairie Light spell. Surrounded in a cloud of sparkling dust, the magical Faeries healed and soothed everyone's wounds, allowing them to get back up and continue fighting.

"What the… where did that healing spell come from?" Asmodeus yelled, looking around to find the source of the spell. After a few seconds, he spotted Meena hiding out in the corner of the room. "Of course, there was one more little one I forgot about… so she's the main source of their healing…" Asmodeus commented, as he suddenly raised his hands towards Meena to execute a spell of his own. "Before this annoying fight becomes any longer, I shall end her life right here and now."

"He's trying to attack Meena!" Raditz yelled, dashing towards her to help. "Meena, Hide! I'm coming to help!"

"AHHH!" Meena cried out loud, covering herself helplessly.

Noticing Raditz rushing to help her, Asmodeus first simply hit him back with an energy blast to knock him out of the way. He then chanted a spell for a few seconds, then pointed towards Meena and yelled "WORD OF DEATH!" A dark, menacing grim reaper suddenly appeared over Meena, as it pulled back its scythe to strike at Meena.

"No…" Farleen yelped helplessly as she kneeled down weakly. "That's… an instant death spell, and she's already trapped…"

"There is no escape." Asmodeus sneered, smiling proudly. "Say good bye, little girl. DIE!"

"AHH!" Meena yelled while looking away, as the grim reaper swung his scythe down to pierce her right through the heart with it. Everyone froze in despair, cursing themselves for not being able to do anything but watch her die.

However, Meena just stood in the spot covering herself, still breathing after the grim reaper attack. After a few seconds, Meena opened her eyes to look around the room, which had become deathly silent. "What's… going on?" Meena asked, confused. "Did it… miss?"

"H… how?" Albel asked, dumbfounded that Meena was able to somehow survive the attack. "How did that little brat survive?"

"I… impossible…" Asmodeus muttered, astonished that his attack didn't work. "It can't be possible… there is not even an ounce of evil in her soul?"

"What happened? Did I fight off that scary monster?" Meena asked, staring at her hands confused. "Is it really gone?"

"Hmph. Who would have thought…" Asmodeus muttered, as he began charging massive energy in the huge eye on his midsection. "If that's the case, then I'm just going to have to destroy her completely… SOUL ERASER!" At his command, a massive, white energy beam bursted out from the big eye, shooting it towards where Meena was standing. "AHHH!" Meena once again could only yell out loud, as the energy beam got closer and closer to disintegrate her.

"UGH!" Jeiuce grunted as he jumped in to pull away Meena from the deadly Soul Eraser attack just in time. The energy attack just barely missed them, as it pierced right through the wall of the Time and Space Lab, far out to the open space of Daemonium.

"T… thank you for saving me, mister…" Meena mumbled, as Jeiuce let her go from his grasp. "You saved my life…"

"Heh… now I've seen the lowest of the lows, Jeiuce… now you're out saving a little KID?" Asmodeus scolded him, walking slowly up to him. "That is just repulsive… an insult to our demon race… I'll have to eliminate you first then… I cannot stand looking at your face any longer."

"Bah… Don't get me wrong… I only saved this kid for our benefits…" Jeiuce muttered, as he got set to defend himself from Asmodeus. "She's… UGHH!" Before Jeiuce could finish his sentence, Asmodeus quickly lunged at him to deliver a running elbow right on his chin. Jeiuce was sent flying backwards, down and out for the count.

"Ugh…" Jeiuce groaned, about to pass out. "… No…."

"This is it, traitor. It's time to purge your soul in eternal darkness…" Asmodeus said, walking up slowly to downed Jeiuce. "Begone!"

"Not so fast!" Lancar yelled, as him, Raditz, and Tynave rushed to protect him from the fatal blow. Asmodeus was quick to react, knocking everyone back with a simple swipe from his tail.

Meanwhile, Meena just stood back with tears in eyes, helpless. _'I… I'm… just becoming a nuisance to everyone… aren't I… everyone is getting hurt in trying to protect me…I'm just getting in their way…'_ Meena thought to herself, her hand slowly clenching into a fist. _'I have to do something… I have to help somehow… I have to…"_

Suddenly, a strange, white light surrounded Meena's body, as her eyes slowly closed. She kneeled down, and began to pray. After a few seconds, her eyes flashed open, as she quickly got up and yelled, "ANGEL FEATHERS!" The same strange, white aura homed in towards all of her comrades, covering them like a graceful dove protecting her nest with its wings.

"What the hell?" Albel blurted, surprised at the white light suddenly surrounding him. For some reason, he felt much _lighter_ now, and much stronger. "Is this that kid's doing?"

"W… what power…" Maria said, astonished at her enhanced powers. "I feel… so much more powerful…"

"Me too!" Raditz yelled, getting up and looking more confident than ever. "So Meena did this?"

"Hehehe… I guess that kid just did another one of her tricks…" Asmodeus said cockily, not at all concerned by what was transpiring. "Try whatever you want… it will not matter in the end…"

As soon as Asmodeus finished his sentence, Jeiuce quickly got back up from underneath him to blast Asmodeus back with his Shadow Bolt Spell. Asmodeus staggered back up from the sudden powerful attack that he didn't expect, and Lancar and Tynave were both quick to capitalize on the opportunity. Lancar immediately hit the demon high up in the air with his Uppercut, as Tynave jumped up in the air to execute her Sakura Attack. After a long series of punches and kicks, she blasted the demon back down on the floor with her Spirit Attack, and Roger nailed him on his way down with his Raging Helmet attack. Asmodeus was sent crashing onto the wall, slow to get up.

"Arrgg… how did you mortals… all of a sudden… get so much more powerful?" Asmodeus muttered, shocked at the turn of the events. "What the hell is going on here?"

"This is… unbelievable!" Lancar yelled, astonished at how much powerful he was now. "I feel almost… superhuman!"

"ENERGY ARROW!" Farleen executed her spell that sent dark energy arrows homing in on Asmodeus. The Energy Arrows once again knocked the demon back senselessly, and Peppita used her Kaboom attack to hit him with a rotating energy ball that rotated around her. Asmodeus fell down to the floor, and then quickly got back up, absolutely furious.

"H… HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? I'M THE ONE CHOSEN BY THE GOD… TO BE THE NEXT RULER OF THE TWO DIMENSIONS…" Asmodeus yelled out loud, gathering more energy on the big eye in his midsection. "I'M A SUPERIOR BEING… I CANNOT BE MADE A FOOL OF… BY FEW OF THESE LOWLY MORTALS!"

"It looks like the tables have turned, fool!" Albel yelled, as he dashed into Asmodeus to attack him. "It's time to feed the maggot his own words!"

"SOUL ERASER!" Asmodeus yelled, shooting a massive energy beam towards oncoming Albel. Albel quickly dodged the beam by jumping over it, and he swung his katana down to execute his Head Splitter attack. Asmodeus tried to dodge the attack, but couldn't get away in time from Albel's now superior speed. "ARRRGGGGG!" Asmodeus yelled in pain as the downward katana strike missed the demon's head, but cut right through his arm, instead.

"Damn, I just missed him…" Albel grunted in disappointment, as he got set to attack fallen Asmodeus once again.

"Ugh… heh…" Asmodeus smiled looking almost psychotic, as he quickly grabbed Meena who happened to be near him. "If I kill this girl… your powers… will be… GONE! HAHAHA!"

"NOOOO!" Meena cried, trying to free herself from the demon's grasp. "HELP!"

"DIE!" Asmodeus yelled as he swung his arm back, split second away from pulverizing Meena with his claws.

"LEAF SLASH!" Clair quickly executed her teleporting move to appear in front of Asmodeus, slashing him away from Meena with two spinning attacks. Albel took this opportunity to dash in and execute his Illusion attack; Albel made 4 slashes in a cross-shaped pattern right onto Asmodeus' body, then followed up to deliver two more spinning slashes. The big demon staggered back, cut up badly from Clair and Albel's attack.

"This is my chance… Oh great grandmother Elise, please lend me your power!" Reen yelled, as she flied high up in the air surrounded in a blue aura. "Purify the demon soul! NIBELUNG VALESTI!" A bright, blue wave of energy shot out from Reen's hands towards Asmodeus, as it spread in a circular wave across the entire room to burn the demon away. "AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGG!" Asmodeus screamed in pain, as the light began to suck his demon powers away from him.

"THIS IS FOR ALL THE FELLOW DEMONS THAT HAVE SUFFERED MEANINGLESS DEATH BECAUSE OF YOU! TAKE THIS!" Jeiuce yelled, as he jumped up to finish up on Reen's Nibelung Valesti attack. He tossed his spear right into the midsection of Asmodeus, right through the big eye.

"Ah… AH…AHAHA...HAHA!" Asmodeus started laughing like a maniac, still alive. He pulled the spear out from his midsection, tossing it away, and then once again staggering around aimlessly. He was surely moments away from meeting his death.

"If I'm… going to die… you're… all… coming with me!" Asmodeus yelled, as he gathered immense aura around him. "HAHAHAHA…."

"No! He's trying to self-destruct!" Jeiuce yelled, well aware of what Asmodeus was trying to do. "Stop him!"

At that time, Raditz happened to be the closest one to Asmodeus. _'This is it… you're the only one who can do this now!'_ Raditz told himself, as his body suddenly became engulfed in a blue aura. "EYAAAA!" Raditz yelled as he charged towards Asmodeus to deal the final blow, as his eyes flashed and turned blue in colour.

"7-STAR… TWIN SLASH!" Raditz jumped up to deliver an upward slash right across Asmodeus' chest with his aura blade, and then came down for a second deadly slash downwards on his body. As he landed back down on the ground, he fired off two shots of powerful plasma energy from his sword, ripping right through the heart of the demon.

"What Irony…. to… lose… the exact… same… way… as 700… years… ago…" Asmodeus muttered his last words, as he kneeled down and finally humped over on the ground face first. The Demon King Asmodeus had finally been slain for good.

* * *

"Huff… Huff…" Raditz struggled to gather his breath, as he kneeled down from the floor, from exhaustion. "We've… killed him. I can't believe it… we just did… what our ancestors did… 700 years ago. We've killed the demon king…"

"I find it hard to believe myself…" Jeiuce agreed, looking down at Asmodeus' dead corpse. "His power was beyond anything I have heard of before… he was indeed worthy of the title of the Demon King… but we managed to kill him. Somehow…"

"It's all thanks to Meena…" Farleen said, walking up to Meena with a big smile. "I don't know what kind of spell you used, but it gave us such a tremendous boost in… everything! Thank you Meena, we couldn't have done it without you!"

"I just wished I could be of help somehow…really really hard…" Meena said, confused. "I'm still not sure of what I did, but I'm just glad it worked! But we should thank Mr. Devil, too! He saved my life!"

"Heh, maybe you're not such a bad guy after all, Mr. Jeiuce." Roger said, with a grin. "I wish you could be… undemonized… or something… somehow! So you could really be one of us!"

"Hmph, don't speak such nonsense. The only reason I saved the girl is because she is of a big asset to us." Jeiuce said coldly, without a trace of emotion on his face. "I'm still a demon, and nothing will change that. But until the end of this mission, I have no choice but to cooperate fully with all of you. If that means I have to save a helpless kid, then so be it."

"Speaking of the 'end of the mission', we're almost there." Albel said, as he looked up to the stairs leading up. "There is one last guy we have to take out. That so-called 'God', or whatever he is."

"There is also that Blue-haired boy who wasted us at Shrine of Kaddan…" Lancar said, with his arms crossed. "But with all of us here this time, if we do happen to run into him again, I think we can beat him!"

"Hmph, I'll make sure he'll pay for his crimes." Albel said, clenching his fist. "It's because of him that thousands of people in Airyglyph are now dead, as well as in Aquaria..."

"Yeah… but for now, our focus should be on that 'god' guy, right?" Reen asked. "As long as we get rid of him, everything should fall in place!"

"I have a really bad feeling about this… who could this 'god' be?" Peppita asked, with a concerned look on her face. "Could it be… the 4D beings?"

"Based on all that I have heard so far, I guess we can't rule that out anymore." Maria said, as she walked towards the stairs leading up to the next floor. "But we have closed off all connections to the 4D world… so it should technically be impossible. Still, I suppose that it could be someone from Sphere, or something like that. Either way, this 'god' is no ordinary being, that's for sure."

"And we must not forget about Lady Nel, Fayt, and Sophia." Tynave said, reminding them that they were still captured somewhere in this building. "Let us hurry so we can rescue them before it is too late!"

"Tynave is right. We have not a moment to waste." Clair agreed, hoping that Nel, Fayt, and Sophia were all safe. "Let's get going."

"Alright, let's move!" Albel said, as he ran ahead in front of everyone up the stairs leading to the second floor. Everybody else ran behind him, to continue up the Time and Space Lab.

* * *

**Chapter 56: The Unwanted Duel**

Albel and others progressed through the floors 2 through 4 of the Time and Space Lab with minimal trouble. The demon guards on each of the floors had received the news that the King Asmodeus was killed, which dealt a serious blow on their morale. They knew that they were now leaderless, and that they now had nobody to turn to. Many of the Demon guards actually ran away upon confronting the group, and those who resisted quickly suffered the same fate as their superiors.

"The demon army is in chaos, it seems." Maria said, looking around the green and grey interiors of the Time and Space Lab. "It looks like killing Asmodeus has done wonders for us. This way, we avoid most of the unnecessary fights."

"Exactly. Without a leader, everyone is now in a state of confusion and fear… most would not be so haste now to challenge us." Jeiuce agreed, punching in the code number for the door to the next floor. "It is my wish to minimize any casualties for us demons, so this works out best for everyone involved."

"Man, how did you Demons build such high-tech place as this?" Lancar asked, surprised by the advanced facilities of the Lab. "I know you guys have knowledge and everything… but where did you get the raw materials and all that for building this place?"

"This lab is actually not of our creation…" Jeiuce explained, as he walked up the stairs to the 5th floor. "It is the device of the mortal race called the Moorians, just like the Soul Transfer Device, and also that relic you hold called the 'Eye of the Truth'."

"The Moorians made THIS place, too?" Raditz asked, surprised. "Man, why did they even come to the Daemoneum in the first place, anyway?"

"The Moorians… The descendents from the ancient days of Earth… the people of the now non-existent Mu Continent, which disappeared thousands of years ago…" Maria said, recalling her old Earth history lessons. "It is said that Moorians were very technologically advanced people… before the Mu Continent sank to the bottom of the sea, it was said that some of them flew to Planet Roak, to find a new home."

"That's right… oh yeah, I remember the bit from the ancient memoirs, too…" Raditz said, remembering what Ratix had said in his old memoirs back at the Mt. Metox cave. "He said that Moorians created the 'Eye of the Truth'… so that they could go back home to Earth one day."

"And they somehow reached the Daemoneum, instead…" Reen said, deep in thought. "You know what, I know they are our ancestors and everything, and I don't fault them for wanting to go home, but if you think about it, they're the whole reason why the war broke out in the first place… and they're the one who created all those machines too! If it wasn't for those stupid machines, there wouldn't have been wars, and Albel wouldn't have been…"

"Enough." Albel said in a low voice, stopping Reen from finishing that sentence. "There is no need to dwell on what has happened in the past. People make mistakes, and others suffer because of it… that's what history is like. It's inevitable."

"Yes, Albel is right. And besides, if it weren't for these machines, none of us would have ever met." Clair agreed, smiling back at Reen. "Let's focus on what we can do here and now, to _correct_ our ancestor's past mistakes, instead of criticizing them. So that less people will suffer in the long run."

"Hehe… yeah you're right." Reen agreed, calming herself down. "Sorry, it's just that sometimes, it's too frustrating to understand and accept..."

Everyone finally arrived at Floor 5, where the main containment lab for the subjects were said to be in. Maria directed everyone to the containment chamber, taking the lead.

"This is the main containment chamber. It's the place I escaped from." Maria said, looking around the tubes for Fayt, Nel and Sophia. "Fayt and others should be contained in one of the tubes here somewhere. Let's all split up and look for them."

"Wow, this place has so many containment tubes…" Farleen commented, looking around. "I didn't think that this place would be this huge…"

"How… grotesque…" Reen commented while covering her face in horror, looking at various failed test specimens that were contained in the tubes. "I really hope they didn't do this to your friends…"

"These are only monster specimens… it's quite different from the experiments they do to humans." Jeiuce explained, looking through the containment tubes. "I'm pretty positive that they would not have done anything this drastic to your friends."

"I think I've seen some of these monsters on Roak before…" Peppita said, looking at a big lizard-like beast contained in one of the containers labled _'Lizard Axe'_. "It's gross…"

"That is because some of these monsters gets deployed to our dimension by the demons." Maria said, turning to Jeiuce. "At least that's what it seemed like, anyway. Am I correct, Jeiuce?"

"Hmph." Jeiuce merely grunted, not giving an answer.

After about 5 minutes of quick searching, everyone gathered together to discover that Fayt, Nel and Sophia were nowhere to be seen.

"So, I guess those three are not contained here." Albel said. "This could only mean one thing… they must be at the top floor."

"That's the most likely explanation…" Maria "Which means, this 'god' is really close to unleashing his or her plan, whatever it may be. It looks like we have even less time than we think. Let's all hurry to the top floor, then."

"But it's strange…" Farleen commented, confused about something. "There should be three opened tubes for Fayt, Sophia, and Lady Nel, right? But we found two from this side of the room, and two from the other side… which means there were 4 vacant tubes in total… how can that be?"

"There could have been another subject they captured, who knows." Lancar said, hurrying up to the next floor. "There's no time to worry about that. Let's go already!"

"Okay…" Farleen agreed, getting a bad feeling about all this.

* * *

The party hurried up to the 6th floor, which happened to be another one of the storage rooms for equipments and such. Though the room was relatively dark, everyone got through to the other side of the room without a problem, not meeting any demons on the way. However, as they got to the doorway to the 7th floor, they saw a demon sitting down by the gates, curled up motionlessly.

"Heh… I didn't think that there would be no guards on this floor… that would have been too simple…" Albel said, unsheathing his sword. "Let me do the honours."

"No, that will not do." Jeiuce stepped ahead of Albel to walk up to the demon, which was still motionlessly sitting down. "I shall try to convince him to make way for us."

"Hmph. The hard way, huh?" Lancar said, with his arms crossed. "But I suppose it's better for us to not fight anyone until we get to that god guy…"

"My fellow demon, I am Jeiuce." Jeiuce introduced himself to the demon that was still sitting motionless. "I have come here to overthrow the tyrant that is using us for his own benefits. I do not wish to fight with any of our brothers... Please cooperate with us and let us through."

"…" The demon showed no reaction to Jeiuce, still curled up.

"Maybe he is hurt?" Tynave asked, confused on why the demon wouldn't respond. "Or perhaps he is already dead…"

"Hey, did you hear me?" Jeiuce asked again, as he tried to get the demon to pay attention to him. "I'm… w… wait a minute… you're…"

At that moment, the demon suddenly rose up to blow Jeiuce away with a thunderous kick to the midsection. Jeiuce was sent flying in pain, crashing into number of boxes stacked on the other end of the wall. "Ugh…" Jeiuce groaned in pain, totally caught by surprise.

"Hmph… I had a feeling it wouldn't listen…" Albel sneered, as him, Raditz, and Lancar all rushed towards the demon to take the demon out. "Make way, scum!"

"SHOCKWAVE!" The demon yelled to shoot out a low-flying shockwave along the ground to unsuspecting Albel, Raditz, and Lancar. The three were nailed precisely by the Shockwave attack, as they were sent tumbling to the ground in pain.

"That's… not a demon…" Jeiuce got up slowly, to inform everyone. "That's…"

Clair looked up to examine the dark, mystery figure, which began to look strangely familiar. It had a slim figure, and was wearing long black boots, black shorts, and a black shirt with yellow outline at the edges. Looking further up, she saw a scarf around the person's neck, and discovered that the person had short red hair…

Suddenly, Clair got a bone-chilling feeling down her spine. This was…

"It can't be…" Clair mumbled, trembling in shock. "You can't be…"

Before Clair could finish, the person jumped towards Roger and Reen to kick them away with a powerful spin kick. As everyone else stepped away, the person immediately turned back to Clair, glaring menacingly at her with sharp, green eyes.

"…Nel?" Clair asked softly, still somewhat refusing to believe that it was actually her best friend standing before her. Nel did not respond, and quickly jumped towards Clair with her twin daggers out to attack. Clair barely deflected away the dagger slashes from Nel, but then got knocked away with a thrust kick.

"I can't believe it…" Peppita said, as she turned to Nel to look at her. "Miss Nel, it's me! Peppita! From two years… AHHH!" Before Peppita could finish, Nel mercilessly executed her Shadow Wave attack, knocking the Circus girl away.

"Ugh… have you forgotten about us, wench? It's us!" Albel slowly got up, trying to reason with Nel. "What's wrong with you?"

"ICE DAGGERS!" Nel threw her twin daggers charged in ice energy towards Albel without any hesistation, which Albel could only barely dodge.

"So… this is your friend?" Reen asked in annoyed voice, slowly getting up. "She's not very nice!"

"LIGHTNING CHAIN!" Nel yelled, as she shot numerous bursts of lightning where Reen and Roger were standing. Both dodged the attack, and Reen charged her orbs in order to make a counterattack. "RAVEN…"

"NO, PLEASE STOP!" Clair yelled out loud, pleading with Reen. "Please do not attack her!"

"Miss, it's me! Don't you remember? I'm the handsome Menodix you rescued from Duggus… ARRG!" Roger yelled in pain as Nel knocked him back with her Firebolt spell. Jeiuce then quickly stepped up in front of her, with his spear held out, ready to battle.

"So this is one of your comrades that you were looking for…" Jeiuce said, not taking his eye off Nel for one second. "Sorry to inform you this, but she has been possessed."

"Possessed?" Clair asked, still dumbfounded. "How can we return back to her normal?"

"We can't." Jeiuce replied, with a bitter grin. "There is no known way to reverse the process, if you don't know who possessed the person in the first place."

"Then let's look for the person who possessed her!" Clair suggested, as she slowly got more vocal. "We can't fight her!"

"That sounds like a good plan, except that the person who possessed her is probably past this door, up in the 10th floor." Jeiuce told Clair. "And there happens to be a person here who won't let us past the door. So you see, it's pretty out of the question."

"But still! Jeiuce, please don't fight her!" Clair pleaded her heart out, trying to convince Jeiuce. "She's my best friend, and our comrade!"

"I apologize that I have to battle such a dear friend of yours, but it must be done if we are going to save both of our worlds." Jeiuce said, walking slowly up to Nel who was getting ready to attack. "Besides, do you know how many of MY comrades and friends that I have been forced to reluctantly kill so far?"

"But…!" Clair yelled, running in to stop Jeiuce from attacking.

"DEMON FANG!" Jeiuce yelled as he swiped his spear towards Nel to send a rapid shockwave along the ground towards Nel. Nel simply dodged the attack by jumping up, and then dived down towards Jeiuce to knock him away with a diving kick. With Jeiuce down on the floor, Nel quickly turned to Tynave and Farleen, standing close to her.

"Lady Nel! It's me! Farleen!" Farleen tried her best to make it known to her superior and her trainer, as she was also reluctant to make any attacks. "Your favourite stu… AHHHH!" Before she could finish, Nel knocked her subordinate away with a diving elbow right into her midsection.

"No… Lady Nel…" Tynave muttered, as she reluctantly got in her ready position to defend herself. After forcing Tynave to block all of her dagger and kick attacks, Nel used her Whirlwind spell to knock her back to the wall, unconscious.

"Err… you will need to do better than that to beat me, mortal!" Jeiuce yelled as he got back up and charged right back at Nel. Nel simply dodged the spear thrusts from Jeiuce with her lightning-quick speed, then yelled "MIRROR SLICE!" to execute a long combination of deadly slashes with her daggers. Jeiuce struggled to block off the first 5 slashes, but the 6th slash went right through Jeiuce's left forearm, slicing it right off with a spray of blood. "UWAAAAAA!" Jeiuce let out a blood-curdling scream, as he held his now handless left arm in extreme pain.

With Jeiuce stunned in pain, Nel jumped up high in the air to charge herself in a big ball of electricity. She yelled "SPLITTING SKY!" as she shot a deadly wave of electricity towards Jeiuce, which shocked and burned him non-stop for 5 seconds. "ARRRRGGGGGG!" Jeiuce screamed in agony as he dropped down to the ground unconscious, smoke emitting from all over his body. "…"

"DAMN! I knew she was strong, but how did she take out Jeiuce with such ease?" Lancar asked, dodging her slashes and kicks as best as he could. "What kind of experiments did they do on her anyway?"

"Ugh… it's most likely the experiments by the demons which have indeed granted her with such inhuman powers…!" Maria muttered, as she was the latest on the list of receive Nel's assault. "Nel, it's Captain Maria… of the Dip… AH!" Maria yelled in pain as Nel knocked her gun away from her hands with her Flying Guillotine attack. Maria tried to defend herself with her Triple Kick attack, but Nel dodged them easily and knocked her back with a kick of her own.

"FLYING GUILLOTINE!" Nel yelled, as she threw both of her Twin Daggers together right at Clair. Clair stood in the spot frozen, still spaced out in shock.

"AIR SLASH!" Albel used his Air Slash attack just in time to deflect the Flying Guillotine off before it could hit Clair. "Clair, gather yourself!" Albel yelled, to wake Clair up from her shocked-mode. "Don't just stand there! She won't hesitate to kill you at her current state!"

"Um…" Clair backed off and stepped away from Nel, but was still reluctant to fight her. She did not want to fight her best friend. Not for real, and certainly not to the death. Was there really no way to revive her?

"I'll freeze her in place somehow, and we can think of something after!" Farleen yelled out, as she called out to Albel and others. "Keep her away from me for a while!"

"Will do…" Raditz agreed, stepping in front of Nel to fight. "But it will be pretty hard to do so without hurting her…"

Albel, Raditz, and Lancar all fought Nel in order to keep her occupied away from Farleen for a few moments. However, it was tough; Nel's powers had grown so big that even three of them together had trouble handling them. With three of them on the losing end, and with Nel about to charge her Splitting Sky attack once again, Farleen finished her spellcasting, yelling "DEEP FREEZE!" A cloud of cold, frigid air appeared above Nel, as it descended down and soon encased her in a large block of ice, unable to move.

"Yes! We have her contained for now!" Farleen yelled cheerfully, as everyone slowly gathered themselves back up. "Let's go beat the god guy first, then maybe we can…"

Farleen had spoken too fast. The ice block in which Nel was in suddenly started shaking, then shattered in hundreds of pieces. Nel had shattered the entire block of ice from within, without much effort.

"Wha? That… that's impossible!" Farleen mumbled, astonished by the fact that Nel broke through the ice block like nothing. Nel, completely unharmed, immediately jumped towards Farleen and knocked her out with a spinning back kick.

"DAMN! What do we do?" Raditz asked in frustration, as him, Albel, and Lancar all were back to fending off Nel again. After a few moments, Nel completely overwhelmed all of them with her Lightning Chain attack, shocking and burning them down to the ground.

"U… ugh…" Albel groaned, slow to get up. "How the hell are we supposed to… beat her without going full out?"

At that moment, Clair lifted her head and looked at Nel with a sense of determination. Clair walked up in front of Nel, and to everyone's surprise, went in to her ready stance to battle. "I shall be Nel's opponent." Clair said, telling everyone to stay back. "Please, let me take care of her."

"You're going to take her on by yourself?" Reen asked, baffled. "No way… you're joking, right? She's way too strong for one person!"

'_I might be the only one who can return Nel back to normal…_ _I have to be the one who has to fight her'_. Clair thought to herself, as she closely studied Nel's movements so she could read when she was about to attack. "I'll figure something out." Clair assured everyone. "I also know how Nel fights better than anyone else… So do not worry, she will not be able to beat me with ease."

"If you say so…" Reen replied, running away from where the two were standing. "But be careful!"

Clair and Nel stood face to face, with the room deathly silent. Both fighters were trying to read each other's movements carefully, looking for an open room to attack. A cold sweat trickled down Clair's cheeks, really not sure of what to do. Though Clair and Nel were both pretty close in terms of fighting skills, Clair had always been little better of the two over the years; though Nel was stronger, Clair had always been able to win most of the practice duels she had with her in the past with superior tactics and composure. Nel was little hotheaded at times, after all, easily losing control of her emotions and composure. However, it was a different story now. This Nel did not feel any emotions, and could not even recognize that it was her best friend that was standing before her. This was not the Nel she had known from the past.

"HI YA!" Nel yelled, as she finally lunged towards Clair to slash at her repeatedly with her twin daggers. Clair barely managed to deflect them off, but was then blasted away by her Firebolt attack she did point blank. Clair got knocked back, rolling along the floor in great pain.

"Ugh…" Clair moaned, as she struggled back up to defend herself. "…Nel! It's me! Clair… your best friend!" Clair pleaded with Nel, trying to somehow get her to regain her memory. "We came here to save you… please get a hold of yourself!"

"SHADOW WAVE!" Nel yelled, executing her Shadow Wave attack in attempts to cut Clair with her Dark, sharp energy waves. Clair again barely dodged the attack, but was then met with a vicious diving kick from Nel out of nowhere. Clair was sent flying into a column of boxes in the corner, crashing right into it. Numerous boxes fell on her upon the fall to hurt Clair even more, but Clair refused to give up; she struggled right back up, determined to somehow return Nel back to normal.

"Nel… please… I know you haven't forgot about me, or rest of us…" Clair spoke softly, stumbling along in great deal of pain. "Please… snap out of it…"

"…Intruders…must be killed…" Nel said in a robotic voice, as she dashed right into Clair once again with her elbow out in front of her. Clair was hit right back down to the ground from Nel's Charge attack, about to pass out completely. "Ugh…" Clair moaned, things getting hazy in front of her. "…Nel…"

"I can't watch this! It is foolish… there is no way you can beat her alone!" Albel yelled, dashing in towards Nel. However, Nel was quick to see Albel, and simply knocked him back with her Lightning Blast spell. She immediately turned back to Clair, determined to finish her off. Nel jumped high above the ground, and then dived towards fallen Clair to kill her with a diving dagger attack.

'_Is she going to really kill me…? Am I going to be killed, by my best friend?' _Clair wondered, as the view in front of her got hazier and hazier. She had no energy to get out of the way now. Clair could do nothing but look at Nel and wait for her to dive down to end her life. Just about giving up completely, Clair suddenly saw two flashes coming from somewhere in Nel's face.

'_What can that be?' _Clair wondered, as Nel got closer and closer to impaling her with her diving dagger attack. The flashes were just reflections coming from the big, circular earrings that she was wearing.

'_Wait a minute…'_ Clair suddenly thought, suspicious of something. _'Earrings?' _At that moment, something clicked immediately in Clair's mind. Nel had never been the type to wear much fancy jewelry; she had always been a really conservative type, and even if he was to ever wear one, there was no way that she would wear such a big, tacky earring.

"That's it!" Clair yelled, as she quickly reached back to her twin daggers. "It has to be those earrings!"

Nel was split second away from impaling Clair, about 3 meters away from her in the air. Right at that moment, Clair thought _'Please… let this work…' _as she tossed both of her daggers towards Nel's earrings, as she would do with her Ice Daggers attack. Traveling at blinding speed, both of Clair's daggers pierced through both of Nel's earrings with remarkable precision, shattering them away completely. "AHHHHH!" Nel yelled in pain, as she dropped to the floor from the impact, unconscious.

"Ugh…" Clair moaned, running up to fallen Nel. "Nel… NEL! Are you alright?"

"…" There was no response from Nel. Though she was still breathing, she was in an unconscious state. Meena immediately casted her spells to heal everyone back to normal, as everyone gathered around Nel.

"She is just passed out from the intense mental trauma from the brainwashing device." Maria said, examining her. "She looks like she should be alright, but it might take a while for her to come out of this comatose state."

"So… it was the earrings…" Albel said, examining the broken pieces of earrings on the floor. "Who would have thought they'd use something like this to brainwash her…"

"So that's the technology they used…" Jeiuce muttered looking at the broken pieces, holding his handless left arm. "There are so many things they have been hiding from us… who knows what other kind of devices they might have made."

"Clair, how did you figure it out?" Reen asked, curious on how Clair knew that it was the earrings that controlled her. "There is no way any of us would have known that!"

"…T…that's right!" Tynave said, finally realizing how she figured it out. "As far as I know, Lady Nel… never wore earrings."

"Yeah, she's always been boring like that… she hardly wears any jewelery!" Farleen said, with a little smile. "But to realize something like that so quickly… you'd have to know the person really well. I guess you two really ARE best friends, Lady Clair!"

"Yes, indeed." Clair said while holding Nel, smiling back. "I'm just glad that I was able to get her back to normal."

"So Nel was used as a guard…" Lancar said, lifting her from the floor so that the group can continue on. "But we still haven't seen Fayt and Sophia. Let's keep going so we can find them, too."

"As he says. Let's continue." Albel said, walking up the stairs to the 6th floor. "Prepare yourselves. This could be our last battle..."

* * *

**Chapter 57: Stubborn Pride**

The twelve warriors made their way through Floors 7 to 9 without any trouble, much like how they progressed through from Floors 2 to 5. The demons mostly ran away from the group, knowing that they stood no chance in beating them. At last, they arrived at Floor 10, the top floor in which the main research facility was located.

"We're finally here…" Clair said, heading down the hallway towards the entrance of the lab. "It's time to meet the man behind everything…"

"Yes. We shall meet this imposter god, and destroy him for good." Jeiuce agreed, as he stepped ahead. "I'll kill him even if it means that I have to… UGH…" Jeiuce grunted, holding his left arm that had been cut off by Nel's Mirror Slice.

"I'm sorry, mister…" Meena apologized, hanging her head low. "My spell wasn't strong enough to heal your wound…"

"You sure you're going to be alright there?" Raditz asked, a bit concerned. "I can't believe she actually able to cut through your arm like that…"

"I don't expect anyone to heal a wound like this… ugh…" Jeiuce said, trying to withstand the pain. "And I'm still good enough to fight, so just worry about yourselves…"

"Alright, we're here." Albel announced, seeing to the large door at the end of the hallway up ahead of them. "The lab is surely past that door. Let's… huh?" Albel stopped, as he suddenly got a chilling feeling in his heart. "…"

"What's wrong, Albel?" Maria asked, seeing Albel clutching his chest. "Are you still hurt?"

"No… I'm fine… it's just that…" Albel muttered, looking around him. "…Never mind." For some reason, Albel could feel that something VERY familiar was heading towards this direction, something he could literally feel in his soul. He would usually think that it would be his intuition, but this was something completely different. He was so sure of this… sure that something he knew was heading this way. However, Albel didn't say anything, because no one would really understand.

"What is it? You can tell us, Albel…" Clair asked, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Is something… bothering you?"

"It's nothing…" Albel said quietly, turning back to the door. "I just…"

Right at that moment, a demon suddenly appeared out of nowhere right in front of the group. The demon had long white hair, a pair of black wings, and looked really beat-up. "Ugh…" The demon grunted in pain, as he looked up.

"It… it can't be…Saphiro?" Jeiuce stuttered, recognizing the demon that was standing in front of him. "We… killed you…"

"Beh…" Albel cursed, as he immediately unsheathed his katana. "The maggot still lives?"

"Heh… you think… you could beat me… that easily?" Saphiro struggled to speak, clutching the area where Albel had pierced through earlier. "I refused to be… killed…by a lowly failure… like you…"

"You think you can somehow beat us in the state that you are in?" Maria asked, taking out her gun. "You're near death, Saphiro. You stand no chance."

"Let me be the one to finish him off…" Jeiuce said, as he stepped up to kill off Saphiro. "You're like that scum Asmodeus… you need to be eliminated for the sake of our kind…"

"Heh… hehehe…" Saphiro suddenly started laughing out strangely, as he slowly got up. "You think… I'm going to fight you like this?" Saphiro looked over to his side, where a body of another demon suddenly appeared. It was the corpse of Asmodeus, whom they had beaten earlier.

"That's… the corpse of Asmodeus!" Raditz yelled, not knowing what to expect. "Heh, what good can he possibly do for you now? We've already killed him…"

"W… wait…" Jeiuce mumbled, as he suddenly started trembling. 'Saphiro… YOU'RE NOT POSSIBLY THINKING OF…"

"Heh… yes, Jeiuce… that's exactly what I am going to do." Saphiro replied with a menacing smile, as he put his hand on the body of Asmodeus. "Whatever it takes… to beat you… inferior beings…" A large amount of energy suddenly gathered up in Saphiro's hands, as he began to do something to the lifeless body of the demon king.

"You're a fool, Saphiro! Using such unproven technique… YOU WOULD EVEN THROW AWAY YOUR OWN LIFE TO BEAT US?" Jeiuce yelled, running ahead to stop Saphiro from whatever he was doing. "EVERYONE, STOP HIM!"

"Hehe… HEHEHEHE…" Saphiro laughed like a maniac as both him and the corpse of Asmodeus became covered in a bright aura. The aura deflected away oncoming Jeiuce, as the two auras converged into one in a bright flash. Everyone covered their eyes, then slowly opened their eye to see what was standing before them.

What they saw was a monster, mixed in appearance of both Saphiro and Asmodeus. It had Asmodeus' huge monstrous body, with Saphiro's black wings on his back and silver hair flowing out from his head. In his hand was Saphiro's Flamberge sword, burning more brightly than ever.

"Yes… hehehe… I have to be the one that ends your lives, even if it means that I have to sacrifice my own life…" Saphirodeus said, covered in unimaginably powerful aura. "This is a matter of pride… I cannot be beaten by your kind. I AM THE ALMIGHTY SAPHIRO… I SHALL BECOME THE NEW DEMON KING!"

"Beh… such foolish pride…" Albel said, realizing that he was once like that as well, and knowing how foolish this all was now. "What the hell did he just do?"

"He… merged his soul and body with Asmodeus…" Jeiuce muttered, fearing what was about to come next. "An unproven technique… which supposedly allows for unimaginable powers… but the host body usually can't withstand such power… it doesn't live long…"

"What? We've already had enough trouble beating each of them separately…" Raditz said, unsheathing his Aura Blade. "And now you're telling me they've MERGED?"

"We have no choice… we have to fight it." Maria said, taking her fighting stance. "It's either us or him… one of us will not survive this time."

"I guess you haven't had enough, filthy maggot!" Albel taunted, as he fearlessly dashed towards Saphirodeus to attack. "I'll make sure I put you away for good!"

Before anyone could get to him, Saphirodeus slammed his Flamberge sword right down to the ground, creating a massive explosion around him while yelling "ARMAGEDDON BLAST!" The explosion sent everyone back flying, dealing massive burn wounds to everyone. Everyone stayed down, defeated by the massive attack.

"A… Ack…" Albel muttered, trying to get up. "N… no…"

"Hehe… even you mortals cannot compare to my powers." Saphirodeus said proudly, charging up another attack. "You somehow beat me before, and also defeated Asmodeus, but there is no way you can match up to both of our powers!"

"U…UWAAA!" Albel suddenly let out a war cry, as he used his remaining energy to thrust his katana right through Saphirodeus' midsection. The katana pierced right into the demon's body, just like how Albel did at Urssa Lava Caves.

"… Heh, How do you like that?" Albel asked, shoving his Crimson Scourge deeper and deeper into the demon's body. "Don't think that you can be off guard against me and get away with it!"

"Haha… HAHAHAHA!" Saphirodeus burst into laughter, as he just simply took the katana right out from his body, without showing any reaction. "This is amazing… I can no longer feel pain! I am now truly invincible!"

"Damn… this is beyond… anything that I could have expected…" Jeiuce said, as he slowly got back up to his feet. "Such power… we really don't stand a chance…"

"Ugh… we've come too far to give up now…" Lancar said, as he lunged into Saphirodeus to attack. "Let's all go at him!"

Everyone attacked Saphirodeus ferociously, using their strongest battle skills and symbology they each had to offer. However, even the ones that connected didn't do much to him; he was now impervious to pain, and he had completely lost his mind. Saphirodeus plowed through the swarm of attacks, to hit everyone back one by one. Before everyone could recover, a symbol flashed on Saphirodeus' head as he gathered dark energy around him. He yelled "DIMENSION DOOR!" paralyzing everyone with the dark wave of energy first then teleporting to slash at all of them simultaneously with an energy wave slash. Everyone went down, incapacitated.

"This is great… THIS IS AMAZING… WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS BEFORE?" Saphirodeus yelled in joy, mesmerized with his own power. "I'M NOW THE STRONGEST BEING IN THE UNIVERSE! I HAVE ACHIEVED MY DREAM!"

"Ugh…" Jeiuce mumbled, on the brink of passing out. "You've… gone… mad… Saphiro…"

"Haha… I might have now even surpassed power of god himself!" Saphirodeus said, flying high up in the air. "Hehe… he shall be next… after I am done with all of you!" A symbol again flashed brightly on his forehead as the black feathers from the wings started flying around everywhere around him. He gathered tremendous amount of bright energy on his forehead, then turned to the group and released it while yelling "ETHEREAL BLAST!" Unlike the previous encounters, Saphiro had finally succeeded in getting the deadly attack off this time. The wave of energy shot towards the fallen group, on its way to disintegrate them completely.

At that moment, a symbol suddenly flashed on Maria's forehead, as she quickly got up.

"WE WILL NOT GIVE UP!" She yelled, as various patterns of white symbols appeared around her. The symbols came together to create a wide shield around everyone, neutralizing the Ethereal Blast attack.

"What the…" Saphirodeus blurted, baffled that Maria was able to stop his attack. "How could you block that attack… oh… right… you possess the same powers…"

"She has… manifested…" Lancar muttered, still down on the floor. "Maria…"

"We will not be stopped by the likes of you!" Maria yelled, still in her manifested state with symbols surrounding her. "We will survive!"

"Hehehe… confident, aren't you?" Saphirodeus asked sarcastically, as he once again prepared the Ethereal Blast attack. "We'll just have to see who is stronger then… hahaha! This time, I shall come at you, FULL POWER!"

Maria just stood quietly, as Saphirodeus gathered massive amount of energy on his forehead once again. "BEGONE! ETHEREAL…" However, before Saphirodeus could unleash another Ethereal Blast, his body started trembling violently. "Ugh… UGGGGHHH…."

"W… what the…" Albel wondered, as he slowly got back up to his feet. "What's going on?"

"WHAT'S HAPPENING… WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MY BODY?" Saphirodeus asked in pain, back down on the ground, as his body continued shaking violently and uncontrollably. "WHY…"

"He's… losing control of his power!" Jeiuce yelled, realizing what was going on. "This is our chance! Get him!"

"UWAAA! DOUBLE SLASH OF FURY!" Albel yelled, as he took the opportunity to lunge at Saphirodeus to hit him repeatedly deadly slashes from his katana. "U...UGH…" Saphirodeus was sent staggered back, temporarily immobile.

Maria took this opportunity to unleash her ultimate attack. She loaded up a single gigantic bullet in her gun, and then pointed at Saphirodeus to shoot it at him. Maria yelled "ALTERATION DEVICE!", changing the properties of the shooting bullet with her powers of alteration. Symbols began appearing around the trajectory of the bullet in a circular pattern, as it engulfed the bullet in a white light. "GWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Saphirodeus screamed as the bullet pierced right into his body, and stayed in there. After a few seconds, there was a blinding flash of white light, which then scattered into thousands of little sparkles of light that eventually faded away.

As everyone gathered themselves to figure out what happened, they realized that Saphirodeus was now nowhere to be seen; he had been wiped clean, disintegrated completely by Maria's attack. Maria kneeled down, then fell face first to the floor, passing out in exhaustion.

"That… was… unbelievable…" Raditz muttered, stunned by what he had just seen. "Miss Maria… did that?"

"That was… the same move she used to destroy the Battleship Invisible… many years ago…" Lancar said, as Meena healed everyone back to full health. "It was her powers of Alterations that manifested..."

"I still can't believe a mere mortal like her were able to destroy that monster…" Jeiuce said, as everyone went over to Maria to try to wake her up. "Now I can see why they wanted her power…"

"I'm glad… I was able to somewhat control my powers… there…" Maria said to the surprise of everyone, as she weakly tried to get back up.

"Maria, are you okay?" Clair asked, rushing over to her. "Don't overexert yourself!"

"No… it's okay… I'll be fine…" Maria insisted, managing to weakly stand back on her own two feet. "We still have one more enemy we need to… defeat…ugh…"

"That definitely took a lot out of you… you're in no shape to fight right now…" Lancar said, supporting her up. "But I'm glad you manifested when you did… if we got hit by his attack, then we would have been toast."

"What happened, anyway?" Peppita asked, confused. "Why did that demon stop attacking?"

"He… couldn't handle our powers." Maria said, weakly walking ahead. "He was genetically enhanced with the destruction gene… and the alteration gene… much like Fayt and I… however… unlike us, his body couldn't control it like we did…"

"That makes sense…" Lancar said, lifting still unconscious Nel from the floor. "Maria and Fayt have been living with the gene imbedded in them from their birth… and the demons got imbedded with them only recently. Their body couldn't handle the change."

"He had also essentially killed himself when he merged himself with Asmodeus' body…" Jeiuce explained. "Using such suicidal technique… he was truly a fool."

"Hmph… driven by his stubborn pride and hunger for power…" Albel said. "It was a fitting end."

"Do you think there is more people who got embedded with those special genes?" Roger asked. "That could be trouble!"

"There's only one way to find out." Albel replied, as he walked toward the big door up ahead of him. "Our answer lies beyond that door. So let's go in and find out the truth behind all this."

Everyone followed Albel to the big door at the end of the hallway, at the top floor of the Time and Space Lab. They entered the door without any hesitation, bracing themselves for what was to be their final battle.


	18. Part 18: Chapters 58, 59

**Chapter 58: The Fight with the Reborn God**

Albel and rest of his group finally went through the giant door located on the 10th Floor of the Time and Space lab, to enter the main Research Facility where the supposed "God" was doing his work. The room they entered was beyond anything beyond their imagination; it was a very large, wide, and open area, almost as if it was supposed to be a ballroom. Many types of advanced computer equipment were seen to the back of the room, flashing, beeping, and doing whatever work it was assigned to do. High up above the room was a giant glass dome, showcasing the spectacular purple, starry, and thunder-filled sky of the Daemoneum.

"Wow…" Raditz muttered in awe, surprised on how big this research facility truly was. "So this is the main research facility? It's HUGE… it seems way too big to be just a mere research facility to me…"

"This is where the most sophisticated and advanced machines in this lab are located…" Jeiuce explained, still clutching his forearm in pain. "The man has to be here somewhere for sure…"

"Wait a minute…" Lancar said, quickly reaching back for his quad scanner that suddenly started beeping rentlessly. "My scanner is picking up a strong creation energy reaction here… of magnitude… 3? H…how?"

"It could be… from the Sacred Orb…" Maria speculated, still tired out from her manifestation earlier against the combined form of Saphiro and Asmodeus. "And I'm sure the lab itself… needs incredible amount of power to… operate…"

"No, this is no ordinary amount of energy…" Lancar mumbled, his face getting pale from reading out the information on the scanner, and cold sweat running down the side of his face. "The concentration of energy is increasing… magnitude 4… 5… 6… 8?… _9_? WHAT THE HELL?"

"Did you just say… MAGNITUDE 9?" Raditz asked, flabbergasted. "Is it possible to even generate that kind of power? That's unheard of!"

"Whatever kind of power this man may have doesn't matter… I'm not backing down now." Albel said, stepping in ahead of everyone to yell out loud. "LISTEN, SCUM! WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE SOMEWHERE… SHOW YOURSELF!"

At that moment, an ordinary sized man with short blonde hair emerged out from the back of the room, with his head slightly down. He slowly walked ahead towards the group to reveal himself, chuckling a little with a menacing grin on his face.

"Heh… so it's happening again…" The blonde-haired man muttered, holding the Sacred Orb in his hands. "These bugs… anomalies… are once again getting in my way…"

"Who the hell are you, maggot? What is it that you want?" Albel yelled, demanding an answer. "Whatever your reasons may be, I'm going to put an end to your twisted ambitions… right here, right now!"

"And as I thought… it's the same ones…" The blonde-haired man said, slowly raising his head up to face the group. "Why can't you entities understand that there is no avoiding your inevitable fate? When will you realize that it's useless to rebel against your own creators!"

"Wait a minute… that voice…" Peppita mumbled, slowly recalling the menacing voice that she was hearing. "No… no way…"

"Wh…at…" Roger gulped, not believing what he was seeing and hearing. "But we… we all… he's…"

"This… this is not possible…" Maria mumbled, her eyes opening wide in disbelief. "How can he… be… alive…"

"Heh… you think a mere data such as yourselves can achieve such thing as gaining complete freedom from your creator?" The blonde-haired man yelled, looking bitter yet very amused. "Or worse yet, DESTROY your own creator? Hahaha… you entities indeed ARE contaminated beyond salvation… now you have even lost your sense of perception to your own illusion!"

"L…Luther…" Albel muttered with a mortified look, finally realizing the man's true identity. "How could he be…"

"Huh? Did you just say… Luther?" Lancar asked, suddenly getting a very bad feeling. "You mean… THAT Luther…?"

"He's… Luther? You mean…" Clair also asked, turning to Tynave and Farleen who both had a similar look of worry in their eyes as she did. "But Nel said he is…"

"Y… you guys know him?" Raditz asked, totally confused. "Who the hell is he?"

"Heh, I'll tell you who I am, and also what YOU all are…" Luther said, pointing towards everyone. "I am Luther, your creator, your god… and you are all nothing but data that is to be deleted by the yours truly."

"Errr… Shut up already, you creep!" Reen yelled, not backing down from Luther. "YOU'RE our god? Hah! I got news for ya unlike those stupid demons, we're not going to fall for your silly nonsense! We're smarter than that… right, guys?"

Reen looked around to see everyone but her, Raditz and Meena staring at Luther with a totally serious look, deathly quiet.

"…Right…?" Reen asked as her face turned pale, suddenly getting a sickening feeling that what Luther claimed about himself was indeed be true.

"This is ridiculous…" Jeiuce said, refusing to believe the truth. "You mean that it was actually true? Are you telling me that this man here, really IS our god?"

"Hmph, you're right… it IS ridiculous…" Luther said, walking up even closer to the group. "It's ridiculous that programs such as yourselves are still bent on defying the will of your own creator…"

"H… How can he be alive?" Roger asked, still confused on how it can be so. "We killed him 2 years ago… we really did… I saw him being killed right in front of my eyes!"

"Hahaha… so you fools actually thought that you were able to get rid of me completely?" Luther asked rhetorically in a sarcastic tone, not taking his eyes off the group. "I had already prepared in advance so that such thing wouldn't ever be possible!"

"Then explain, maggot…" Albel demanded, clenching his fist in rage. "How the hell are you able to appear in front of us, right here and now, even after we disposed of your sorry carcass 2 years ago…"

"Heh… fine… I'll let it all be known… maybe THEN you'll finally realize how powerless and futile your efforts really were, and will be!" Luther sneered, as he started to explain everything. "You see, this body of mine that you see standing before you happens to be entirely of data, much like yourselves…"

"Entirely of data… like us?" Maria asked, struggling to stand up. "You mean…you're a program?"

"Correct." Luther replied, with a senile grin. "Long ago, I had programmed the data of myself into the Eternal Sphere, which was to be activated at the time of my death."

"It was your intention all along to live on in the Eternal Sphere…" Albel asked with a disgusted look. "Even after your own death…?"

"Hmph… that's right. I programmed myself in order to be preserved in the Eternal Sphere after my own death… but that was until I decided to delete the whole bug-filled game in its entirety!" Luther continued. "At that point, all I wanted was to get rid of all of you and your entire universe! But somehow, you all managed to defeat me and kill me… it sure was an unexpected, premature death. It seemed that I had underestimated the power and the abilities of my own creation…"

"You're damn right you did!" Lancar shouted at Luther. "And the history will repeat itself really, really soon!"

"Heh… you'll get what's coming to you in a moment." Luther retorted back at Lancar, before continuing on. "After my death, I was reborn in the Eternal Sphere in a data form, as you see now… I found out that I had somehow failed in deleting the Eternal Sphere in it entirety, but then realized that I could make the most of the opportunity…I immediately researched how and what exactly made it possible for you all to enter the real world and act like the real people..."

"Y… you mean that's the reason why you…" Maria muttered, finally realizing the reason behind the capturing of Fayt, Sophia, as well as herself.

"That's right… hahaha!" Luther laughed, as he pushed couple of buttons on the computer nearby him to reveal the containment tubes with Fayt and Sophia inside. "That's when I discovered the secrets behind your precious Symbological Genetics Research! The Genes of Destruction… Alteration… Connection… were the keys to it all… it was what made all your actions possible! It was truly a fascinating discovery… it meant that it was actually possible for a mere data like me to return to the real world just as how I was before… as if I had never died at all! It meant that it was possible for me to be reborn into the real world! HAHAHA!"

"Fayt! Sophia!" Peppita yelled as she ran towards them, only to be held back by Lancar.

"Fayt!" Meena yelled, greatly worried for Fayt who was unconscious inside the containment tube. "Oh no!"

"So he was able to use the weapons we had created to fight him, for his own use…" Lancar commented, with everyone now fully aware of Luther's true intentions. "Talk about irony…"

"After I had acquired the three necessary genes, all I had left to do was to look for an Intervention Device that would allow for the connection from the Eternal Sphere to the real world…" Luther continued, observing the Sacred Orb that was in his hands with great interest. "And this orb here happened to be the only ID left in all of Eternal Sphere, with Time Gate and all the other ID's having been destroyed… It took some searching, but I've finally found it… Now everything is in place so that I can finally make my return to the real world! After I dispose of all of you that stand in my way, of course."

"This is… nothing like what I had thought…" Maria said, thinking hard to herself with her head down. "I thought we were our own world now, and that we had totally separated from the 4D Space… But this new world that we had come to understand, created by our own consciousness, is still really nothing but…data?"

"Hahahaha! This is hilarious… your own world you say? Created by your own consciousness? HAHAHAHA!" Luther laughed out hysterically, thoroughly amused by what Maria had just said. "What philosophical nonsense… the only reason that all of you and the Eternal Sphere are still functioning right now is probably because Blair activated the backup system! Simple as that! Nothing could ever be made real by fabrications such as your minds, no matter how much you wished that were the case… "

"Where do we Demons stand in all this?" Jeiuce stepped up to yell at Luther, demanding to know the truth about the whole alliance. "Why did you get all of the Daemoneum involved in your cause?"

"Heh, this place just happened to have all the resources available for me to carry on my plan… it had plenty of creation energy, advanced facilities, and it of course had the manpower!" Luther replied, looking out the window to the big continent of the Daemoneum. "It simply had everything that I could use to my advantage… and your kind were all easy enough to manipulate, as well… thanks to all of you demons, my plans were sped up by a considerable amount."

"So you used all of us just purely for your own benefits, after all…" Jeiuce muttered, clenching his fist in anger. "All that talk about the New Demon World… was just a bunch of false promises, wasn't it?"

"New Demon World! Hahaha… that was a prime example of how easy it was for me to manipulate you lowly bugs… You think I would have actually created a new world for all you pathetic beings? Don't be ridiculous…" Luther laughed again, thinking about how gullible all the demons really were. "Your kind are all really nothing but corrupted data… as a matter of fact, you are even more despicable than the data in the Eternal Sphere itself! After I eliminate of every single one of you, I shall return to the Sphere Company and regain my rightful position as the owner… then delete the Eternal Sphere as well as this quarantine of infected data, for good!"

"WHY…YOU!" Jeiuce shouted in rage as he went into his battle stance, furious about how Luther had just defiled his entire race. "You're not going to get away with this! On behalf of all my fellow demons that were tricked into participating in your scheme, I shall slay you!"

"For the suffering and pain you have caused to both of our worlds…" Clair went up to support Jeiuce, taking out her Twin Daggers to get ready for the battle. "And for every life that had been sacrificed to your vile acts of self-fulfillment, I vow to slay you as well!"

"Everything that had happened to me, all the emotions I now feel, and everything I have vowed to protect… is all real, no matter what you 4D beings might say…" Albel also said, unsheathing his katana to prepare himself for the imminent battle. "That is what I believe… and nothing will convince me otherwise. And believe this, maggot… what is about to happen to you will be all too real… you're going to be feeling it for yourself… You're going to FEEL MY PAIN!"

"Heh… indeed, nothing has changed… the fools still don't know their place." Luther said, as he raised his hand to fire a small energy ball in the air above his head. The energy ball then scattered to form a huge pair of wings, much like the ones he had when the group fought him 2 years ago. "That'll be enough talking for today… the time has come, abnormalities… prepare yourselves to be deleted!"

"Do not underestimate us… Luther…ugh…" Maria said as she struggled up to fight, even though she could barely stand up on her own two feet. "We defeated you 2 years ago… and we shall defeat you again once more!"

"Hah, if you bugs think that I am the same as I was two years ago, you are sorely mistaken…" Luther sneered as he jumped in the air to attach himself to the giant pair of wings he had created, with a huge lance in his hand. "You stand no chance… my battle parameters have been set up to be much higher than all of yours combined! Statistics do not lie… and you all shall find out the hard way! Behold, TRUE POWER!"

Right at that moment, Luther shot a massive purple energy bolt from his wings at the party, creating a spectacular explosion that everyone only barely managed to jump away from. However, Luther's Expansion Force attack had just been a decoy – He immediately flew in behind everyone who had dodged the attack, and then made a wide swipe with his gigantic lance. The huge energy arc created by the slash knocked everyone down to the floor with authority, dealing a great amount of damage to all.

"Ugh… that was… way too quick…" Peppita mumbled, as she struggled to get back up to her feet. "I couldn't even see him… get behind us…"

"Heh… that was just a warmup… but you are all already struggling to get back up?" Luther taunted, amazed at the degree of his own power. "My parameters seem to have been set way too high… even I think it's ridiculous… it's almost as if I was using a cheat device! HAHAHA!"

"SHUT YOUR TRAP, YOU SCUM!" Albel yelled in rage, as he suddenly made a mad dash towards Luther. "I'm going to make you eat dust, as well as your own words! GYAAA!"

"Yeah, we aren't just some toys for you to play with, you bastard!" Raditz also shouted, as he started running in from behind Luther. "Parameters? Hah, you'll see how none of that applies to us after I kick your ass! HIYAA!"

Albel and Raditz ran in from front and back of Luther, trapping him in a Pincer attack. Both made rapid slashes with their swords fully expecting them to hit, but Luther had moved so fast that they only slashed right through a blurring image of him. Luther then immediately appeared up in the air above them, yelling "WALLOW IN DESPAIR!" as he flapped his wings forward at them with great force. A trail of fiery explosions appeared beneath both Albel and Raditz, as they both got knocked backwards in a heap of smoke; they were then hit by a powerful purple shockwave attack that followed up the fire attack, which tossed them mercilessly down to the ground. Both Albel and Raditz stayed down from Luther's devastating Flaming Divide attack, almost unconscious.

"U…ughhh…" Albel groaned, trying his best not to pass out from the great deal of pain he was in. "I can't… be beat… like this…"

"I have to… get up…" Raditz mumbled, clenching his teeth in determination to stand back up. "Sir Ratix would never have given up… just from this…"

"Hahaha! It's all too simple…" Luther laughed, as he prepared to strike at both of them with his lance. "But I guess this is no time for to play around… there is no sense in wasting any more time… DIE!"

"NO! Everyone, let's go help!" Clair yelled, as she and others charged towards Luther to prevent him from dealing a fatal blow to Albel and Raditz.

"MAX SHOCKWAVE!" Lancar yelled, as he charged up massive amounts of energy in his hand, and then shot it towards Luther in a huge half-moon shaped wave. However, to Lancar's surprise, Luther simply neutralized the huge attack using just his palm; he then lunged towards Lancar at a blinding speed to strike him down with an energy wave emitted from the swing of his lance. Lancar was floored, badly hurt by the attack.

"PULSE BLAST!" "HAIL ORB!" "INSTANTO BLAST!" "SPIRIT ATTACK!" Maria, Reen, Peppita, and Tynave all started bombarding Luther with their long-range attacks, stunning him momentarily but not doing significant amount of damage overall. Roger and Jeiuce both took that opportunity to toss their Axes and Spear respectively at Luther, but the blonde-haired madman reacted in time to simply hit them away with a swing of his lance.

"HWAA! ILLUSION!" Albel gathered himself to lunge towards Luther, executing 4 rapid slashes in a cross-shaped format and then two spinning slashes at finish it off. Amazingly, Luther was able to parry every single one of the blurringly quick slashes, though he had his hands full in doing so. With Luther reeling back a little bit, Raditz also charged in to join in on the attack, charging his Aura Blade in electricity to execute his Lightning Sword maneuver. "Ugh…" Luther staggered back from being slightly hurt from the Lightning Blade attack, but then created a giant barrier around him to knock both of them far back.

"STAR FLARE!" Farleen took that opportunity to unleash the spell she had been charging up, engulfing Luther with a shower of powerful star energy. However, Luther countered the attack just in time by executing the Dark Sphere maneuver right underneath him; the Sphere sucked in the energy from the Star Flare spell, neutralizing it and protecting Luther from any harm.

"Heh… pesky bugs… how persistent… I guess I should have expected no less… but this has been quite enough." Luther commented, as he suddenly rised up higher above in the room to charge up both of his wings with massive amounts of lightning energy. Two huge balls of lightning were formed around both of his wings, as Luther unleashed them down to the ground towards the fighters, yelling "When will you realize that… DATA SHOULD BEHAVE AS SUCH?" The two huge lightning balls went right into the floor beneath the fighters, immediately spreading out to cover the entire area with deadly lightning energy. "AAAAHHHHH!" Everybody screamed agonizingly in pain, being shocked and burned mercilessly by the rising wave of electricity. With everybody now locked down with the Perfect Symmetry skill, Luther unleashed another spell by yelling "RAY!" and sending numerous laser beams towards all. Everyone got helplessly blasted back by the laser beams, as they all fell to the ground in near-incapacitated state.

'N…no…" Clair faintly mumbled, being one of the few who were left with any consciousness at all at that point. "This can't… be… it…"

"Ugh… get… up… get up…!" Albel mumbled to himself, trying his best to get back to his feet and failing. "Can't lose here… after… coming… this far…"

"It's been a valiant effort on your part, my creations… but as you can clearly see, your parameters simply can't measure up to those of mine." Luther proudly said, as he started gathering enormous amounts of red-coloured energy in his hands. "Now, it's finally time for you all to be deleted… prepare yourselves to feel the wrath of my most powerful program!"

"That skill is… no… we… have to get… up… before its too late…" Maria muttered as she recognized what Luther was about to do. He was preparing to unleash his most deadly attack, the Insanity Prelude.

"Here the sound… the sounds of the gates of the netherworld opening to take you away…" Luther said, as the floor slowly became engulfed in crimson-red wave of energy.

"Gah…" Albel finally struggled back up, barely able to support himself on this katana. He knew that if they were to be hit by the Insanity Prelude attack in their current state, they wouldn't have a chance of surviving. Albel desperately struggled towards Luther, trying to do somehow halt the attack.

Right at that critical moment, three small fireballs came out of nowhere accompanied by a faint voice yelling "FIREBOLT…!" The Firebolt spell nailed unsuspecting Luther right in the back of his head, distracting him enough to temporarily halt the Insanity Prelude attack.

"H…huh?" Albel muttered, surprised at being saved in an unexpected fashion. "Who…"

"Ugh… what the hell was that?" Luther yelled in annoyed voice, as he immediately turned around to see who had just nailed him with the Firebolt spell. He saw Nel standing weakly in her battle stance, staring right back at him.

"I… I have no idea how you are still alive… Luther…" Nel said faintly, weak from using her last ounce of strength on the Firebolt spell. "But as long as I'm still breathing… I'm going to do everything in my power… to stop you…"

"N… Nel!" Clair softly called out while still being down on the floor, glad that Nel had recovered her consciousness. "Thank goodness…"

"Y… you're the one that I brainwashed with the device! How dare you interrupt me?" Luther yelled angrily, turning around to glide towards Nel. "Hmph, I guess those bugs somehow found out how the device operates… so you've failed in your mission as well, just like those three useless demons… I'll have you know, the price for failure is heavy…"

"I would never work for the likes of you… on my own will…" Nel weakly said, not backing down an inch from oncoming Luther. "And as an honoured member of the Crimson Blade… and in divine name of Apris… I will atone for my mistake… I shall fight you to the end!"

"Hah, you can barely stand up on your own two feet… and yet you're still stubborn enough to put up a resistance?" Luther sneered, as he swung back his lance to strike at Nel. "How foolish… very well, DIE… JUST AS YOU WISH!"

"…!" Nel closed her eyes and covered herself helplessly, not having the energy to do much else. She clenched her teeth in bracing herself for his strike, and for death that was to most likely follow.

However, Albel used that moment to gather up the last ounce of his adrenalin to lunge at Luther from behind. 'UWAAA!" Albel let out a thundering cry, giving it his all in striking him with a powerful Double Slash. The first upward slash mercilessly tore right through one of his wings, and then the downward slash sliced him right across the back, spraying blood and creating a sickening gash. "UGHHH!" Luther yelled as he fell down to the floor, in great deal of pain.

"Ugh…" Nel moaned, and though she was saved by Albel's attack, Nel fell to the ground, passing out from the stress.

"H… how dare you… damn…" Luther muttered, stunned by Albel's blindsided attack "I got… careless…"

Right that that moment, Meena, who had been hiding behind one of the pillars in the room the whole time, ran out to yell "FAIRIE LIGHT!" to cover the fallen party members in a warm, soothing holy light. The Faerie Light spell fully healed everyone's wounds, allowing them all to get back up to their feet, good as new.

"W…WHAT? H… HOW?" Luther yelled in astonishment, stunned at how everyone had recovered instantly back to full health. "T…that girl… possessed the powers of healing… of such degree? But only a Nedian could…"

"It's back to square one, Luther!" Albel yelled, with everyone running up behind him to show their support. "None of us are going to back down even an inch… we're just going to keep coming at you, no matter how many times you have us down. So prepare yourself to feel our wrath over and over again, maggot!"

"Heh, incompetent fools…" Luther chuckled, as he turned around to face the party in full confidence. "You think such a minor wound from getting a lucky shot in is going to change anything? I am still vastly superior to all of you all aspects, in all parameters… all I have to do is to beat you all down to the ground again, just like I did before… it's that simple."

"All of you, listen up… this could be our last chance…" Albel told everyone, as he took his fighting stance once again. "We may not be so lucky the next time he has all of us down. So don't hold anything back… give it all you got… let's all show this creator what we're capable of, and show him who we all truly are! "

"Yes, let's all show him that we're all much more than mere data he has created…" Maria said, following up on Albel's words. "Let's demonstrate how we're not ones to be limited by parameters and such… let's show him that we are all capable of going beyond them! "

"That's right… think of all the obstacles that we have been able to overcome so far… all the powerful enemies that we have defeated… we can do it again… we can defeat him… just believe in yourselves!" Clair said in her inspirational voice, her eyes glittering in determination. "And most importantly, think of everything that you cherish and love, all that you want to protect from this evil… remember that only we can protect them, and no one else! Let's give it our best, everyone… for the sake of everyone in our universe!"

"Hahaha… go ahead… delude yourself into believing in such fabrications all you want…" Luther laughed, gliding towards the party to start the battle once again. "In the end, only the truth and righteousness will prevail! DIE, ABNORMALITIES!"

Luther shot purple shockwaves from his wings again, raiding the party with his Expansion Force attack. However, everyone was determined to mount more offense this time around; Tynave and Lancar both dodged the blast by quickly jumping out of the way, and then dashed right into Luther to shower him with an onslaught of punches and kicks from both sides. Luther struggled for a while to parry their flurry of attacks, having much more trouble this time around. "Beh…" He finally swung his lance in a wide arc to hit them away, but both of them sprung right back up, not about to let up.

"Hit us away all you want… we're just going to keep coming back for more!" Lancar yelled as he dashed towards him once again, but at a greater speed this time. "FIERY TACKLE!"

"Ugh…" Luther grimaced, as he was sent staggering backwards from Lancar's devastating Fiery Tackle attack. As he staggered back from the impact, Tynave snuck in from behind him, yelling "RISING DRAGON!" to deliver a swift spin kick and then a powerful uppercut. Luther was knocked up in the air from the stinging combo, but he soon gathered himself to spin back into his ready position. "Damn…you impudent bugs!" Luther yelled in rage, as he used his Expansion Force attack again to hit the two fighters back with a purple shockwave. Both Lancar and Tynave were knocked down to the ground in pain, but they struggled back up immediately to ready themselves again.

"Shit…why don't you all just give it up already…" Luther said in annoyed voice, realizing that everyone had somehow gotten more persistent and stronger than before. "No matter how much you attack, it's not going to matter… you data can only do so much…"

"Hah, I don't care if it matters or not, you moron!" Roger taunted, as he launched both of his axes repeatedly at Luther to execute his Axe Fury attack. "Yeah, I may not be strong enough to beat you alone, but I can still make your life a living hell! HIYA!" Luther batted away each of Roger's Axe attack, but not without trouble; one of the axes nailed him directly in the forearm, causing him to back away while clutching his arm in stinging pain.

"SHADOW FLARE!" "METEOR SWARM!" With Luther reeling, both Jeiuce and Farleen let loose with their respective spells to shower him with countless numbers of shadow bolts and fiery meteors. "BAH… DAMN IT!" Luther cursed, as he could only shield himself while being pummeled by the dark energy bolts and the meteors. Though none were able to inflict a direct hit on Luther, it certainly did wonders in making him retreat back and turn the tide in heroes' favour.

"MIRROR SLICE!" Clair yelled as she made multiple dagger slashes in smooth and fluent motion, accurate and precise as a reflection in a mirror. Luther was only able to block about half of the six slashes, as others cut right across his torso and chest to deal stinging damage to him. Luther immediately hit Clair away with a swing of his lance, but noticed that he had been pushed back almost all the way to the end of the room.

"W… where did this overwhelming amount of power come from?" Luther muttered in confusion, clutching his slash wounds in pain. "This is impossible… my parameters are set infinitely higher than all of these inferior beings combined… then why… why am I the one reeling?"

"You once again have underestimated our capabilities, Luther! Just like I said earlier, our abilities are not bound by your silly parameters or anything that you have created." Maria said, as she pushed Luther back even further by repeatedly firing away at him with the Scatter Beam attack. "You didn't take into account something we possess that was NOT of your creation… our spirit and will in fighting for our existence… and for protecting our own world…"

"NONSENSE! UTTER NONSENSE!" Luther yelled angrily, as he executed his Flaming Divide attack to knock everyone back down and create himself a little more breathing room. "Spirit and will? Such fabrications… can only ever be fabrications and nothing more! This is just a game… what you speak of is absolutely impossible!"

"Hah, I'll show you how there is nothing impossible about it! HOLY ORB!" Reen yelled, as she sent 4 of her magical orbs high into the air to charge them up in massive amounts of holy energy. Reen then immediately fired them away towards Luther, as they descended down to blast him backwards powerfully with each hit. "ARRG!" Luther grunted in pain, as he was finally sent struggling down to only one knee.

"SWORD DANCE!" Peppita shouted out, as she quickly dashed into Luther with both of Nel's daggers (that she had momentarily borrowed) in her hands. Peppita executed 8 rapid spinning slashes along in an illusive but fluent dance sequence, eluding Luther's defense with its unorthodox and unpredictable pattern. Luther received the full wrath of all 8 hits, as he was now sent down to both of his knees.

"Erggg… ARRRGHHH! THAT'S IT… ENOUGH… IS ENOUGH!" Luther suddenly shouted out in rage like a madman, losing control of his emotions from now being on the losing end. "I SHALL HAVE YOU ALL DELETED, AT ONCE!"

Luther used every ounce of strength he had left to float up into the air and charge enormous amount of electric energy right in front of him. The energy gathered together to form into a huge energy pyramid, powerful enough to mercilessly disintegrate anything in its path. "GET READY TO BE OBLITERATED! TROJAN DELTA!" Luther yelled as he unleashed the energy pyramid, which spun slowly forward to engulf and destroy everything in its way.

"Damn, we gotta stop that thing before it fries us into dust!" Lancar yelled, as he immediately shouted "MAX SHOCKWAVE!" in an attempt to neutralize Luther's attack. However, the huge energy pyramid easily plowed its way right through Lancar's energy attack with its superior power; Maria also used her Energy Burst attack in an attempt to stop it, but it also couldn't do much in slowing down the deadly pyramid of doom.

"THERE IS NO STOPPING IT, FOOLS! BE WIPED CLEAN, ABNORMALITIES!" Luther yelled in delight, fully confident that he was about to finally come out on top.

However, right at that dire moment, something clicked into both Raditz and Albel's mind. The power of Seven Stars suddenly manifested in both, as Raditz held back his Aura Blade while being surrounded in flames. He then shouted "GRAND PHOENIX BLAST!" at the moment he swung his sword forward, to unleash a huge, fiery Phoenix in front of him. The Grand Phoenix met head-on with Luther's Trojan Delta attack, ruthlessly engulfing and disintegrating the energy pyramid. The Phoenix then went right through to Luther himself, swallowing him in its flames. "UWAAAAAAAHHHH!" Luther let out a blood-curdling scream as his entire body started burning painfully from the holy fire.

With Luther staggering from feeling the full effects of Raditz's ultimate attack, Albel dashed in to unleash one of his own. Albel yelled "DRAGON RAVE!" while being surrounded by the blue aura, executing 10 continuous slashes of the deadliest speed, power, and accuracy a human could ever muster up. After each of the 10 slashes sliced right through Luther's flesh like hot knife through butter, Albel gathered up enormous amounts of dragon spirit energy in his claw to finish him off with 5 hits of the Dragon Roar blast. "GWAAA….!" Luther yelled as the impact sent him flying backwards, his body hitting the floor twice before being knocked down flat on his back.

"I… I can't believe it…" Luther mumbled, down on the ground with his fingers and body twitching, unable to get up. "I've… been defeated… by these data… again?"

"huff huff That's right, maggot… this is the end of the line…" Albel said, out of breath from exerting tremendous amount of power for his Dragon Rave attack. "… I'm going to finish you off huff … once and for all…"

"Ugh…" Luther grunted in pain, crawling away helplessly from Albel in desperation. "This… can't… be… happening…"

"DIE… LUTHER!" Albel yelled, as he raised his Crimson Scourge high up above his head to get ready to strike down Luther. "….!" Luther winced, as he braced himself for the fatal blow.

Right at that moment, Albel suddenly felt a spine-chilling tingle down his spine as something flashed in his head.

"…"

… Something was coming.

"ACK…!" Albel grimaced, as lowered his katana and staggered back in distress.

"Albel?" Clair asked in concern, noticing that Albel was suffering from some sort of trauma. "W… what's wrong?"

"?" Luther also looked up from the ground in a state of confusion, using that opportunity to slowly back away out of harm's way from distraught Albel.

"Beh… what… is… this?" Albel asked himself, wincing and experiencing some sort of a mental breakdown. This was the same feeling that he had felt right before the fight with Saphiro, when he felt that something VERY familiar was coming in his direction.

However, this time, the feeling was much, much stronger; he was 100 certain that something was coming his way, and that it was about to enter the room through the door. Albel felt his soul being pulled to whatever that was coming his way, just as if one end of the magnet was being pulled to the other…

"Albel! Get a hold of yourself!" Raditz said, rushing in aid of Albel. "What is it that is bothering you?"

"Something… is… coming…" Albel mumbled, turning around to shift his focus to the door. Everyone turned around with him, to see if Albel was right.

At that moment, a boy entered the room. A Blue-haired boy with a tail.

* * *

**Chapter 59: Conflicting Identities**

The blue-haired boy walked into the room, void of any sort of emotions in his face. He robotically made its way towards Albel and the others, unsheathing his Eternal Sphere sword and seemingly ready to battle at any given moment.

Albel immediately stared down at the boy's expressionless face, to see whom this person that he apparently saw coming really was. And surely enough, he definitely recognized him. He had recognized him by the look, but more so through his soul…

"You're…" Albel mumbled in shock, his eyes wide open and his face deathly pale. He looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

And he wasn't far off.

"T… this is the guy!" Lancar yelled, immediately recognizing the blue-haired boy that had taken him and the others out earlier. "This is that blue-haired boy that I was talking about! The guy who had us beat at Kaddan and stole the Sacred Orb!"

"Y… you're right … he really _is_ a Roakian Felinefolk…" Raditz commented, noticing the blue-haired boy's tail and the fighting stance. "And that's the Edarl Style stance… who… who is this guy?"

"Ah… hahaha!…. cough… Of course… how could I forget?" Luther muttered in laughter, slowly getting back up to his feet while clutching his wounds. "How could I forget about… my greatest weapon…"

"I knew it! I knew all along that he was working for you!" Farleen said, pointing to the blue-haired boy. "You ordered him to retrieve the Sacred Orb for you, didn't you?"

"Heh… correct… and unlike those useless demons… he was able to succeed…" Luther said, with an evil grin on his face. "Now I shall order him… to destroy all of you at this instant!"

"Hah… we may have lost to him back at the Shrine of Kaddan…" Roger said confidently, twirling his chained axes in a circle. "But this time, we got EVERYONE here… there is no way he'll be able to take on ALL of us!"

"Ugh… how overconfident…" Luther cursed, staggering back to support his damaged body on one of the computers. "Unlike those demons and you defects… this boy here is able to manipulate the power of destruction, alteration and connection to their maximum potential… you fools stand no chance… this is the most perfect, ultimate weapon…"

"You mean… he's genetically engineered with _all _3 genes?" Maria asked, staring sharply at rather oblivious blue-haired boy. "And he's able to use them with full control?"

"That's right… and the best of all, he only goes in accordance of _my _wishes…" Luther sneered, quite confident on the ability of his servant. "He's a perfect example how all data should truly be… functioning under the absolute command of its creator! Hahaha!"

"We already know how to free him from your control, Luther!" Clair said, staring down at the two big, circular earrings that the blue-haired boy had on. "All we have to do is to destroy that device you placed on him!"

"Heh… then why don't you give it a try?" Luther said confidently, as he around to his servant. "You won't even be able to touch him… see for yourself. All right… MY LOYAL WEAPON… KILL THESE INTRUDERS!" Luther yelled while snapping his finger, ordering the blue-haired boy to attack.

"…" The blue-haired boy, however, didn't attack. Instead, he started staggering in one spot, holding his head in apparent state of mental trauma. "…ugh…"

"UGH…!" Albel also let out a loud groan right at that same moment, in a similar state as the blue-haired boy. "He's…" Albel muttered, holding his head.

"W… what is this?" Luther asked in panic, wondering why his orders didn't get through to the boy. "Is this a glitch of some sort? Why is he not… responding to my orders?"

"Albel! What's happening?" Clair yelled, rushing over to kneeling Albel in concern. "What's causing you… all this pain?"

"Damn, what the hell is going on here?" Raditz asked, as he turned around back and forth to look at Albel and the blue-haired boy. "Why are these two reacting in the same way? And how did Albel know that this guy was coming here in the first place?"

"Albel… please answer me…" Clair begged, as she supported Albel back onto his feet. "Please tell us what's going on!"

"T… this boy…" Albel mumbled, as he slowly gathered himself to look back up at the boy's face. "he's…"

"You… know him?" Clair asked, turning around to look at the blue-haired boy as well. "Who… who is he?"

"That boy… is the same boy from… the picture…" Albel struggled to explain, supporting himself on his katana and his knee. "Simone's… picture… that boy is… her son…"

"_W_…_what_?" Clair asked quietly in disbelief, her entire body suddenly stopping cold. "Her son? But Simone's son is…"

"This boy…" Albel continued, gathering himself and then finally dropping the bombshell. "He is… _me_…"

Right at that moment, everyone froze, staring at Albel in utter disbelief.

"He is… _you_?" Maria asked again, just to make sure if she heard it right. "What are you… talking about…?"

"That is my original, true vessel…" Albel explained, with his head a little more clear now. "The body that… my divided soul… got separated from…"

"No way…" Reen said, absolutely stunned. "I don't believe it…"

"There is no doubt about it… that boy over there… is me…" Albel claimed, looking very sure of himself. "I can sense it with my soul…"

"T…that explains why that boy is a Felinefolk and know the Edarl style…" Raditz muttered, still shellshocked himself. "But…"

"…" Luther just quietly listened along, astonished yet fascinated with the information.

"Wait a second… if all this is really true… if that boy over there is indeed your real self…" Jeiuce said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "Your soul is supposedly to be of the _evil _component that got divided by the Demon Mirror… so it logically means that the boy over there possess the _good _half of your soul…"

Upon hearing Jeiuce's words, Lancar immediately recalled back to the words that the Queen had spoke back at the Shrine of Kaddan, regarding the boy. "It… it all makes sense… her majesty said that she could not feel any evil presence in that boy's soul…"

"So that must have been the reason how he was able to enter the Holy shrine…" Tynave said, looking at the blue-haired boy who was also slowly gathering himself. "Because his soul was of the pure good…"

"So we have finally discovered the truth about it all…" Clair commented with her eyes closed, thinking back to everything that had happened between Albel and herself. "But no matter what the truth is, the only true Albel that is standing here is the one that is with us. Nothing will change that."

"…" Albel stood quietly, and then slowly went into his fighting stance. "You're right. Divided soul or not, I am the _only_ me. I'm the only Albel that is known to this world… not that brainwashed vessel that is standing over there. So let's end all this right here. Let's get rid of him and that scum Luther… right off the face of our world."

"Arrg…" The blue-haired boy initially walked towards the party to attack them, but then collapsed to his knees again holding his head. He was seemingly having a conflict of his own within his mind.

"His mind control device… it's losing its effect!" Maria pointed out, upon seeing the boy struggle. "This is our chance… let's free him from the device and then kill Luther for good!"

"No." Albel said adamantly, as he walked towards the boy to strike at him with his katana. "That body… needs to die… for my own sense of identity… and for my own sense of existence…"

"Albel! No!" Clair yelled, rushing over and preventing Albel from striking the boy down. "There is no need to kill him!"

"Ugh… let go of me!" Albel screamed at Clair in rage, freeing his arm from Clair's grasp. "This is… for the purpose of my own being!"

"No, listen to her… she is right!" Jeiuce yelled out, to inform Albel of something. "If you kill him, you'll…"

Right that that moment, Luther, who had been forgotten by the party in the midst the whole fiasco, suddenly flew up in the air to concentrate ALL of his remaining energy into his hands. "HAHAHAHA!" Luther laughed hysterically as a red wave of light scattered away from his hands in a circular pattern, knocking everyone down. The floor then got filled in a huge crimson-coloured vortex, as roots suddenly popped out from each side of the room. The roots then powered up the huge ball of matter that appeared in the air in front of Luther with tremendous amount of light energy, to create one large energy ball. With everyone scrambling back up from being hit with Luther's unexpected attack, Luther yelled "BEGONE!" as the huge ball of energy in front of him scattered away to home in to each of the fighters, blasting them all away mercilessly. Though Luther's Insanity Prelude attack was unsuccessful in killing anyone due to his weakened power, it still damaged everyone very badly. Everybody stayed down on the floor, all in a state of near-incapacitation.

"Hahaha… fools…never turn your back… on your creator…!" Luther taunted, stumbling along to a huge computer that was to the right of him. "That… was… some fascinating information… you say that… the blue-haired boy over there… is one-half of your divided soul? HAHAHA!"

"Ugh…" Albel grimaced in pain, trying to get himself back up. "Damn you… Luther…"

"Hahaha… this is brilliant…" Luther laughed hysterically, punching in commands on the computer with a grand scheme in mind. "With this… there is no way they'll be able… to defeat me…"

"N… no…" Jeiuce mumbled, seemingly understanding what Luther was about to do. "He's can't be thinking of… no… this must… be… stopped…"

"SOUL TRANSFER, INITIATE!" Luther yelled, as he finally executed the program that he had activated with the computer. Suddenly, a huge yellow bolt of energy came out from the device to shoot right into Luther's heart, which then came back out a few seconds later to shoot right into the blue-haired boy's heart. "UWAAAA!" The blue-haired boy screamed in pain, as a blinding flash engulfed the entire room.

"…" Raditz looked up, to see Luther's body dropping to the floor like a ton of bricks. "What the hell… just happened… here…?"

"That bastard…ugh…" Jeiuce cursed, looking up to see that his speculations had unfortunately come true. "He used the Soul Transfer device… on himself?"

"…Damn…" Albel swore, as he also slowly lifted his head to see what had just transpired.

As the dust settled, everyone witnessed the blue-haired boy slowly getting up from a fetal position, with a very menacing grin on his face. They could easily tell that the blue-haired boy was now of totally different entity; Luther had transferred his own soul into his.

"Hehehe… excellent… I can feel the unimaginable amount of power flowing through this body…" Luther commented in great pleasure, admiring his newly acquired body. "Who could have thought that this lowly leftover vessel from the demon experiments would become of such a great use?"

"He… he just switched bodies…?" Maria commented, as her and everyone else slowly got back up to continue fighting. "This is not good…"

"So that was the Soul Transfer Device…" Reen said, realizing that the machine was of the same Moorian-technology that had transferred the soul of Elise, her ancestor, to another vessel 700 years ago. "Playing around with people's souls and bodies… is just wrong… we have to destroy that thing…"

"Heh… this is the price you corrupted bugs pay for building such a device that tries to change and defy the laws of nature!" Luther yelled, as he held up the Eternal Sphere sword in his head and walked towards the party. "Now, I'll make sure all you fools die by your own mistakes."

"Don't think that it's going to be that easy… Luther!" Maria yelled confidently, pointing her phase gun towards at Luther. "No matter which body you transfer to… we're not going to back down from you… we'll all continue to fight on as we have so far!"

"Really? Is that so? We'll see if you will think the same way once I tell you about a certain piece of fascinating information about my new body…" Luther sneered, with an amused grin on his face. "You see, if you all somehow manage to kill me… it'll also be the end of your friend standing over there!" Luther quickly pointed his sword out to Albel, who looked back to him, confused.

"H… huh…?" Clair mumbled, stunned at what Luther had just claimed. "N…no… that's got to be a lie…"

"No way! You think we'll believe something like that, Luther?" Reen yelled back at Luther, refusing to believe what he had just said and arguing with him. "Why in the world would THAT ever happen? It doesn't make any sense… there is no logic to it!"

"That's right! It's got to be all lies! We're not going to be tricked by you anymore!" Peppita yelled, agreeing with Reen. "Right everyone?"

"Hmph… if you all refuse to believe me, perhaps you will believe someone on your own side…" Luther said, turning towards Jeiuce. "Tell them truth, demon… you know how it all works…"

"…" Jeiuce just stood there with his head down, closing his eyes.

"N… no! It can't be true!" Clair said, rushing over to Jeiuce wishing that he could tell her the same. "They're all lies, isn't it, Jeiuce?"

"No they aren't… he speaks the truth. I'm sorry to tell you." Jeiuce confirmed, to the dismay of everyone. "He transferred his soul to Albel's old body… which means two souls currently reside in that vessel; his own, as well as Albel's 'good' soul. Should his body die, his soul would die as well, but the other half of Albel's soul in his body would also die along with it… yes… it all means that… Albel will die. The good and evil in a soul cannot exist without each other. It's the basic law of this world."

"W… what…?" Albel asked in disbelief, totally shocked by the truth. "I'll… die?"

"No… that can't be!" Clair cried, burying her face in her hands and yelling out loud. "THAT CAN'T BE TRUE!"

"There is nothing false about it." Luther said, going into the Edarl style battle stance. "All programs works as such… you data are all of the binary code… you're all composed of nothing but 0's and 1's… and a program without either a 0 or a 1 is not possible!"

"Then how are YOU going to live on, Luther?" Lancar asked, clenching his fist. "How are YOU going to live if you end up killing Albel?"

"Heh… you're as incompetents as you look…" Luther sneered. "Even if the other half of his soul in this body dies, it is of no concern to me… my own soul would still exist, and I'll continue to live on in this vessel."

"…" Everyone dropped silent, lost at what to say or to think about what was going to happen from here.

"I'm sorry." Jeiuce said, going into his fighting stance in order to fight him. "I didn't think it would turn out this way… and I didn't want to do this…"

"No, stop! We can't fight him… if we kill him, Albel… will also die…" Clair begged, trying to stop Jeiuce from fighting Luther. "There has to be another way!"

"We have no other choice! Errg…" Jeiuce yelled, struggling to free himself from Clair's grasp. "It's either he dies, or the entire universe dies!"

"GALE SLASH!" Luther wasted no time, shooting a storming gust of wind at the rest of the party. Everybody barely managed to dodge the blast, but Meena was still knocked back from the force, hitting her head against the wall. "AHHH!" Meena dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"Meena!" Roger yelled, rushing to Meena's care. "Are you okay? Speak to me!"

"Hmph. Good. She won't be able to miraculously save you all any longer…" Luther commented, running in towards the party. "This all ends now… PREPARE TO DIE!"

"DEMON FANG!" Jeiuce retaliated by shooting a ground energy wave towards Luther, but Luther effortlessly deflected the blast away with his Eternal Sphere Sword. Luther yelled "DOUBLE DRAGON SLASH!" as he made a powerful upward slash then a downward slash right against Jeiuce's body, with his sword covered in dragon force energy. "UGHHHHH!" Jeiuce yelled in pain, as Luther's powered-up version of the Double Slash knocked him down to the floor, doing critical damage.

"!…" Everyone else wanted to go in and help out Jeiuce, but then hesitated when they thought about what would happen to Albel if they killed Luther. "…" Everyone froze, not knowing how to deal with this situation.

"U... ugh…" Jeiuce mumbled, stubbornly getting back up to his feet to continue fighting. "I'll… take you on… by myself… if I have to…"

"Hah! Persistent bug… a disgusting corrupted data like you should be erased!" Luther said, as he suddenly made a sharp thrust into Jeiuce's body with the Eternal Sphere sword, piercing right through his midsection. "ARRRRG!" Jeiuce screamed in agonizing pain, as Luther slowly raised the sword with Jeiuce still impaled in it.

"What's wrong, fools?" Luther sneered with an evil grin, turning around to face the party with Jeiuce gruesomely impaled in his sword up in the air. "Shouldn't you all be coming to his rescue by now?"

"GWAAAHH!" Albel suddenly let out a war cry, lunging in by himself towards Luther like an angry bull. "Hmph! I could see you coming from a mile away!" Luther yelled, as he immediately dropped Jeiuce from sword and turned around to face oncoming Albel. Luther made a powerful slash with the Eternal Sphere sword, as the star waves emitted from the sword knocked Albel back without much effort.

"Ugh…" Albel groaned, struggling back up to his feet to keep on going. "Listen! All of you! Don't just stand there like idiots… ATTACK HIM!" Albel yelled in frustration at the rest of the party, prompting them to attack.

"He's… right… you must…" Jeiuce muttered on the ground, before passing out completely from the pain and the blood loss.

"B…but!" Maria replied, hesitant to attack. "What about…"

"FORGET ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO ME! WHY WOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN?" Albel yelled in rage, "JUST ATTACK HIM! DIDN'T YOU FOOLS COME HERE TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE? THEN DO SOMETHING!"

"H… he's right…" Raditz said, reluctantly stepping forward to fight Luther. "We can't just stand here… we have to stop Luther from deleting our universe…"

"Y… yes…we have no other choice…" Maria said, half-heartedly stepping up to fight as well. "We still have to fight him…or else he will end up deleting all of us as well…"

"But… but…" Reen still stayed back, confused on what she should do. "I want to save our universe… but Albel… I can't just watch him… die…"

"… Alright…" Clair, who had been in thought for a while, finally announced to the surprise of everyone, going into her battle stance to fight. "If this is what must be done… if this is what Albel wants…then…"

"Good… and the REST OF YOU DO THE SAME! FIGHT HIM!" Albel yelled to everyone, as he lunged towards Luther once again. "Remember what all of you came here for!"

"L… let's go then!" Lancar yelled as everyone charged towards Luther to fight him, although they all still looked somewhat reluctant.

"Hmph. So you all choose to fight me after all…" Luther said, not moving an inch. "Very well then… SHOCKWAVE STORM!" He suddenly yelled, as he swung his sword in a wide arc around him to surround himself in giant pillars of energy. "UGHH!" The pillars of energy knocked everyone right back down to the ground, in great pain.

"D… damn…" Lancar mumbled, struggling back up. "He's just… too powerful…"

"BEH… GET UP, FOOLS… ATTACK HIM WITH ALL YOU GOT!" Albel yelled angrily, getting back up to his feet. "ENOUGH WITH YOUR HALF-ASSED EFFORTS! FIGHT LIKE HOW YOU ALL HAVE BEFORE! GIVE IT YOUR ALL!"

"Heh heh… you fools always let some fabrication like your emotions get in your way…" Luther said, as he suddenly charged his Eternal Sphere in massive energy. "That is exactly why you will never be able to defeat me! Take this… SPIRIT BLAST!" Luther yelled, swinging his Eternal Sphere sword downwards to scatter countless blasts of power spirit energy all over the room. Albel, Clair, Lancar, Maria, Raditz, Tynave, and Farleen all barely managed to avoid the attack, but the rest were not so lucky. "AAAH!" Roger, Peppita, and Reen screamed as they were hit back by the spirit blast attack, instantly knocking out all of them. The bursts of energy also hit the containment tubes that Fayt and Sophia were in, releasing them.

"Hmph. That's only 3 of them… and it looks like I blasted those two out of their containers, as well…" Luther muttered, looking towards unconscious Fayt and Sophia on the ground. "No matter… they're of no use at all anymore, anyway."

"Fayt… Sophia…" Maria said, concerned for both of them who were helplessly down on the floor. "Hang in there…"

"I guess I'll take care of rest of you separately, just to make sure…" Luther said, rushing towards Tynave to attack her. "Erg…" Tynave hesitated, not knowing what to do. Her moment of hesitation was enough for Luther to hit her away with his Double Dragon Slash, knocking her out. With Tynave taken care of, Luther turned around to look at Farleen, who had been standing closest to him.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" Albel yelled at Farleen, prompting her to attack. "FIGHT HIM! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? YOU ALWAYS HATED ME… THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO KILL ME OFF!"

"N…no…!" Farleen retorted, defending herself against Luther. "I may not like you…. But you're still one of us… I can't…!"

"FOOL!" Luther yelled, swinging his Eternal Sphere at Farleen to hit her with the wave of star energy. "AHH…" Farleen yelped as she dropped to the ground, falling unconscious.

"Hmm, which one of you should I take care of next…" Luther said, looking around to the rest that were standing. "I'll save that Albel boy for last… It'll be better to take care of rest of them first…"

"Not if I take care of you first, maggot!" Albel yelled as he ran in to execute his Dragon Rave attack on Luther. However, Luther parried off every single on of his attacks with precision, then knocked him away with his sword without much effort. "Heh… your efforts are useless… I can see your moves… before they even come…"

"D… damn…" Albel cursed, down on the ground. "H… how…"

"ALTERATION DEVICE!" Maria yelled, shooting a bullet from her gun and manipulating it with her powers of alteration to alter its property of matter. The bullet flew right towards Luther surrounded in bright, circular pattern of symbols, surely to disintegrate him away upon impact.

"Heh…" Luther laughed, just waiting for the bullet to come towards him. "YOUR POWER AREN'T GOING TO WORK ON ME!" he suddenly yelled, as he reached out with his arm out to snag the bullet right out the air with his bare hands.

"H… how?" Maria asked in disbelief, having put all she had into that one attack. "Even my powers… are not enough?"

"Hmph… you still don't have full control of your powers…" Luther grunted, clenching his hand into a fist to mercilessly crush the bullet. "But this vessel can manipulate all three genes to their maximum potential… I can neutralize any your attacks with ease…"

"I… it can't be…" Maria mumbled, dropping to the floor in exhaustion.

"Still, it'll be the best to kill you right here, right now, while I have the chance…" Luther said, walking upto nearly unconscious Maria to finish her off. "You never know what your types can be capable of…"

"GRAND PHOENIX BLAST!" With Luther momentarily occupied with Maria, Raditz used the opportunity to unleash his most powerful attack on Luther, pushing him back with powerful force of the scorching phoenix. "Ugh…" Luther groaned, not significantly damaged but still momentarily stunned with the attack.

"SHINING KNUCKLE!" Lancar immediately followed up Raditz's attack by charging towards Luther surrounded in golden energy, pummeling him repeatedly in the midsection with his charging fist. "D… DAMN!" Luther yelled, holding his stomach in pain. "How dare you… bugs…"

"Damn… that's all I had left…" Raditz muttered, completely drained out of energy.

"huff… same here…" Lancar said, staggering forward then kneeling down. "Shit…"

"DIE!" Luther yelled, about to strike both of them down.

But as Luther tried to charge towards both Raditz and Lancar, somebody came from under him to grab him across his arms, to hold him in place. "Ugh… get… him…" It was Fayt, who had somehow recovered his conciousness. "…Now!"

"CLAIR!… THIS IS THE CHANCE!" Albel yelled, still down on the ground, to the only person that had remained standing. "KILL HIM!"

"R… right!" Clair said as she dashed in towards Luther, attempting to kill him by slashing him right across the throat with her daggers. "!" Luther cringed, helpless to defend against it.

"…NO!" Clair cried, stopping her daggers right at Luther's throat, and then pulling back. "I… I can't do this!"

"Heh… idiots…" Luther sneered, as he immediately freed himself from Fayt's grasp and knocked him away back to the wall. He then slashed at Clair with his Eternal Sphere, knocking her away with the wave of star energy. "AHHH…" Clair yelped, as the energy blast mercilessly knocked her down to the floor. As she hit the ground, the Palmira's Wishing Charm that was in her pocket fell out, and dropped to the floor. "…I'm… sorry…" Clair mumbled, losing consciousness.

"Hahaha… friendship… love… whatever fabrication it may be…" Luther laughed, looking down at Clair. "You'll never be able to defeat me because of your silly attachments to them!"

"…Damn…" Albel muttered on the ground, frowning in disgust… "Clair…"

"Now, to finish you off!" Luther yelled, concentrating vast amounts of energy into his Eternal Sphere sword. He held the sword out, as the sword started shining brighter and brighter in prism light. "PRISM NOVA!" Powerful beams of prism light bursted away from the sword like a supernova, scattering it in all direction. "UWAAA!" Raditz and Lancar both screamed in pain as the attack blasted them and everyone in front of him back, downing them for good. However, the Prism Nova attack was so massive that it also destroyed all the computer systems and engines that were in the lab. One of the machines exploded, as the tank above it started shaking heavily.

"Hmph… it looks like I damaged the main creation engine in the lab…" Luther muttered, looking at the massive tank in the back that was badly damaged. " It'll probably end up exploding and obliterate this entire dimension… heh, not that I care... I was going to do that later, anyway…"

"!" Jeiuce reacted faintly upon hearing that information, almost near death. "No…."

"There is probably about 10 minutes left before it overloads and blows up… 15, if I'm lucky…" Luther said, turning back around to face the downed party. "That should be more than enough time for me to kill off these bugs then make my way over to the real world… hahaha!"

"F…Faerie…Light…" Right at that moment, someone softly yelled out to cast a weaker Faerie Light spell, healing everyone just enough for them to barely get back up to their feet. It was Sophia, who had used her last ounce of power to heal everyone.

"Huh? Oh, right… forgot about that one…" Luther said with a little surprise, noticing Sophia in the corner of the room, who collapsed back down. " Whatever… It doesn't matter if you all get healed now… look at you, you can all barely even stand up..."

Albel got back up, and suddenly looked to be in a really deep thought…

"We can't… give up…now…" Raditz mumbled, struggling back up to fight. "We have to all… fight until the end…"

"Yes… you'll have to kill us all off… before you can go anywhere… Luther!" Maria yelled, still in severe pain. "We're not backing down!"

"Heh. Kill you all off? That's relatively a simple matter at this point!" Luther laughed it off, charging his Eternal Sphere once again in energy. "I shall do as you wish, then. BEGONE, ALL OF YOU!"

"STOP!" Albel suddenly yelled to stop everyone, then slowly walked towards Luther. "You won't be fighting them, Luther… you'll be fighting… _me_…"

"W… what?" Lancar asked, confused by what Albel had just said. "What are you…talking about?"

"He was right… you all let your emotions get in your way. You won't ever be able fight to your full potential against Luther, because deep inside… you're all concerned about… what would happen to me…" Albel continued, staring right into Luther's face in determination. "Right now… I'm the only one who can fight him without such concern… I'm the only one that stands a chance of killing him. I'll do this… alone."

"…!" Clair reacted, shocked by what she was hearing. "Albel…"

"Heh… let me get this straight… you want to take _me_ on… ALL by yourself?" Luther asked, very amused. "Hahahah! This is truly hilarious!"

"Nothing funny about it, maggot. I mean all of it." Albel said coldly, taking his battle stance. "Let's end this… one on one."


	19. Part 19: Chapters 60, 61, 62

**Chapter 60: The Final Showdown**

The time was slowly ticking away at the 10th floor of the Time and Space Lab, where Albel had just stepped up to challenge the soul-transferred Luther, alone. With everyone looking at the two in a state of shock, the damaged Creation Engine in the lab continued to shake violently, causing a tremor throughout all of Daemonium. With only about 15 minutes left until the Creation Engine would explode, Albel and Luther faced each other, both looking to end this fight as soon as possible.

"Come on. Bring it." Albel taunted, his mind focused only on Luther who was standing in front of him. "You and me… one on one."

"…" Luther was initially speechless, then slowly looked back to Albel with a little smirk. "You're serious… you really want to take me on… one-on-one?"

"This is foolish, Albel!" Raditz yelled, concerned for what Albel was getting himself into. "Even if you somehow manage to kill him… you'll be putting an end to your own life, too!"

"Stop Albel… please stop!" Clair pleaded, tears welling up in her eyes. "There has to be another way… we'll figure something out… I can't let you die… you're the one that said you didn't want any more lives sacrificed!"

"If I can become the very sacrifice that can put an end to all other sacrifices that may happen in the future…" Albel calmly said, having already accepted his fate. "Then I'm doing it. I'll give up my own life… if it means that other will live on..."

"Hehehe… your intentions are certainly heroic, I'll applaud that much." Luther said with a snicker. "But I won't be able to applaud your foolishness of not knowing thy enemy…"

"Enough talking, fool." Albel said, stepping up to face him with confidence. "No matter what the odds are, I'm taking you on. And even if I should die in this battle, you'll have everyone else here that will be after your head, free of all their needless worries."

"Albel, you're not thinking of…!" Reen asked hysterically, suspicious of Albel's intentions. "You're not doing this to… get rid of yourself on purpose, are you? Don't think of doing something stupid like that!"

"Hmph. Don't be silly… I have no intention at all of losing." Albel smirked, "I'm challenged him because I know that I'm the only one that can defeat him right now. I'm fully confident that I can win."

"Hah… is that so. Alright then." Luther said, backing down and walking towards another one of the computers behind him. "I'll accept your challenge…"

"Then where do you think you're going, maggot?" Albel asked, confused on why Luther was walking away from him. "Thinking of running away?"

"Me? Run away from the likes of you? Don't be ridiculous." Luther laughed, punching in numerous commands into the computer. "I'm just making sure that this duel STAYS a one-on-one contest, as you requested…"

Right at that moment, a powerful electric barrier appeared from the floor to cut off the room into two, blocking the space between where Luther and Albel was standing from where everyone else was. The powerful electric barrier buzzed loudly, ready to mercilessly fry anyone who would try to pass through it.

"!" Albel reacted in surprise, thrown off guard at what had just happened.

"What the hell?" Lancar cursed, surprised by the electric barrier suddenly rising up. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Heh, you think I'm stupid enough to think that you bugs wouldn't interfere?" Luther asked, sneering at the rest of the group. "Don't worry… after I kill the boy in this one-on-one match that he wants, I'll come back for the rest of you."

"Damn…" Maria cursed, having been outsmarted by Luther. "He already anticipated us getting involved…"

"Good. I'm glad that you did it." Albel said, slowly walking towards Luther to square off against him. "Now no one can interfere. Alright, maggot… let's not waste any more time with this."

"Very well." Luther said confidently, walking towards Albel with his Eternal Sphere sword held firmly in his hand. "Let's end it all, right here and now."

With everyone looking on helplessly and nervously from the other side of the electric barrier, Albel and Luther both stopped from about 20 feet from each other, going into their respective battle stances. While Albel had a very determined and focused look in his eyes, Luther had a very relaxed stance, looking almost _too_ confident.

"You're truly a fool, boy…" Luther sneered, staring right into Albel's eyes. "You have already lost this fight, before it even began… I already know about what you are going to do."

"…Huh!" Albel asked, wondering what Luther meant by what he just said.

"That's right. I can read all your current thoughts… I know of everything that you are going to do in advance…" Luther cockily said, pointing to his heart. "You see, the other half of your soul is still lodged deep within this body… and since the divided souls are one and the same, it allows me to read your thoughts as if they were my own."

"Beh…" Albel muttered, finally realizing how he was able to feel the blue-haired boy coming from far away in the first place.

"I can feel all hatred, nervousness, and fear that you currently have in your soul…" Luther went on, trying to throw off Albel with his mind games. "And I already know of how you were planning to approach this fight… how you are going to attack… HAHAHA! You don't have a chance! I can read you like an open book!"

Albel, after some moment of thought, suddenly closed his eyes to immediately empty his mind and soul. "…" Everything around him suddenly turned black and silent, as if he was in an abyss of nothingness.

"Hmph, trying to empty your mind, huh?" Luther asked, getting ready to charge towards Albel. "Good thinking, but it won't be enough…you'll have to decide on how you're going to attack sooner or later…"

"D…damn…" Jeiuce cursed, still down on the floor from all his injuries. "There's… no way… he can… win…"

'_Shit…'_ Raditz cursed to himself, becoming more and more hopeless for Albel. _'How can he possibly pull this off…'_

A short period of silence ensued, with nothing else but the rumbling of the lab echoing throughout the room. A cold, nervous atmosphere filled the entire room, with everyone bracing themselves for the imminent duel. Albel and Luther both stared right down at each other, looking to see who would move first…

"THIS IS IT… MEET YOUR END, DEFECT!" Luther yelled, making the first move by dashing in rapidly towards Albel. "DIE!"

"UWAAAAA!" Albel let out a loud war cry, as he also lunged towards Luther to fight him head on. The two got closer and closer to each other, preparing to finish off each other with a single slash of the sword.

'_Albel...!'_ Clair cried to herself in her mind, covering her eyes with her hands right before the moment of impact. _'Please… please win for all of us…'_

Albel and Luther ran head-on into other in the center of the room, both making a wide, deadly slash with their swords towards each other's body. SLIT – The sound of sliced flesh was heard in the air as the two fighters passed right by each other, with their swords held out…

………………….

"GWAAAAAAAA!" Albel let out a blood-curdling scream, getting tossed in the air from the sword slice with his blood spraying everywhere. Albel crashed to the floor in a sickening thud, rolling on the floor a few times before he finally came to a full stop… motionless.

"!" Everyone immediately closed their eyes, cringing at the sight of Albel crashing down to the ground, covered in blood. Luther finally came to a stop from the momentum taking him forward, simply sheathing his sword in victory.

"A… Albel…" Clair yelped softly, weakly dropping down to her knees. "…No…"

"Shit…" Raditz cursed, turning around with his eyes closed in despair. "Damn…"

"Albel…" Maria mumbled, closing her eyes and lowering her head in sadness.

Reen, Peppita and Meena all immediately burst into tears, while Fayt, Tynave, Farleen, and Jeiuce all just stood motionless, stunned by what they had just seen. With everyone else in a state of devastation and mourning, Lancar continued to stare at fallen body of Albel, his eyes wide open in a look of disbelief.

"A… Albel…" Lancar muttered. "T… that was… amazing…"

"…What?" Raditz turned to Lancar, confused by what he had just said. "What are you… talking about?"

"UGHH…" Albel groaned on the ground, clutching the long, bloody gash on his chest. He slowly reached back for his katana on the ground, trying to get back up to his feet.

"He… HE AVOIDED IT!" Lancar yelled in joy, noticing that the gash on Albel's chest was not a deep one. "I DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT HE DID IT!"

"Huh…?" Clair slowly looked back up, confused.

"W…WHAT?" Luther yelled in disbelief, stunned at how he wasn't able to hit Albel precisely with his slash. Luther then felt something really warm suddenly turning scorching hot at the side of his waist… he then reached back to touch the hot spot and looked at it, to see his hand completely covered in blood. A deep, sickening gash was seen to the right side of Luther's Waist, sliced right through to the back.

"Ugh…UGHHHH!" Luther groaned hysterically, immediately trying to reach back for his Eternal Sphere sword. "I… IMPOSSIBLE! HOW COULD HE…."

"H… He's injured!" Lancar yelled, pointing to now-staggering Luther. "Albel! This is your chance! Finish him off… NOW!"

"T… this is it…" Albel muttered, getting a hold of his Crimson Scourge katana and pulling it back as if he was about to throw a spear. "EYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Albel suddenly became surrounded in the powerful blue aura, as he thrusted his arm forwards to toss his Crimson Scourge towards staggering Luther. The katana glided through the air at an incredible speed, powered up by the aura of the Seven Stars. "GAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH……" Luther screamed as the Crimson Scourge katana pierced into his heart, puncturing right through it and flying out from his back.

"This… can't… be…" Luther muttered, looking at the bloody, gaping hole in the middle of his body. He then weakly dropped to his knees, before muttering his last words. "D… defeated by… my own… creations… again…" Luther fell face first onto the floor, slowly being covered in a pool of blood, motionless.

"HE… HE DID IT!" Lancar yelled in triumph, pumping his fist in the air. "THE SONUVABITCH DID IT!"

"YES! YES! WOOHOO!" Roger started jumping up and down, yelling out in joy. "WAY TO GO ALBEL! THAT'S OUR BOY!"

"T… that was unbelievable, Albel…" Maria said, with a relieved look on her face. "You did it…"

"YAY! YAY!" Reen and Peppita both hugged each other, overjoyed with the victory. "ALBEL! YOU'RE AMAZING!"

Meena celebrated by jumping up and down with her hands held up high, while Jeiuce just gave a simple smirk of approval, still down on the floor. Tynave and Farleen both smiled in relief, both glad that this was finally all over. With everyone celebrating, Clair walked towards the electric barrier to embrace Albel on the other side.

"Albel…" Clair mumbled, tears of joy flowing down her face. "Y… you did it… I knew you could do it…"

"Ugh… of course…" Albel replied with a slight grin, holding the wound across his chest. "I would never lose to someone like him…"

"H… how did you do it, Albel?" Raditz asked, as he came running in to ask. "I thought Luther was able to read any action you were going to take… I thought it was all over… everything happened so quickly…"

"I… I was probably the only one that noticed this… but…" Lancar said, having observed something with his superior Klausian eyesight. "When Albel and Luther met head on… Luther somehow lost his balance slightly… I don't know how he lost his balance, but Albel was only able to partially avoid his slash because of it…"

'_That's right…Luther stuttered right before he made his attack, for some reason…'_ Albel thought to himself, turning back to look at Luther lying motionless in a pool of blood. _'If it wasn't for his slip, I would have been done for… I wonder what had made him lose his balance at that moment?'_

"L…look at his foot!" Peppita suddenly yelled, pointing to Luther's right foot. "There's something tangled around his foot!"

Albel and others immediately shifted their focus to Luther's feet, to see something pink tangled around his right shoe. Albel walked towards him to get a closer look, to see that the object responsible was a wishing charm, made entirely out of pink flowers.

"T… that's!" Farleen reacted, immediately realizing what the charm was. "That is Palmira's Wishing Charm! H… how did that get there?"

"Y… you mean…?" Clair asked, reaching back to her pockets in confusion, to find out that there was nothing there. "I see… it… it must have somehow fallen out during our battle against Luther…"

"Talk about being lucky…" Reen commented, staring at the wishing charm.

"…" Albel stood quietly, recognizing the gift he gave to Clair a while back at Peterny. "I guess that thing… saved my life… ugh…" Albel groaned as he suddenly fell back down to his knees, clutching his chest.

"W… what's wrong, Albel?" Clair asked in concern, immediately tending to Albel. "Is it… is it the wound?"

"N… no…" Albel said, suddenly feeling his life force slowly being pulled away from his body. "I… I'm…"

"H… his soul…" Jeiuce weakly said, struggling back up with help from Raditz and Tynave. "It's… getting weak… it's beginning to… fade away…"

"….!" Everyone suddenly stopped cold, remembering how Albel's soul was supposed to die as well if Luther had died. Everyone had forgotten about it amidst the excitement of victory.

"N… no…" Clair muttered, frozen in disbelief. "No… he can't…"

"Damn, we have to do something!" Raditz yelled in panic, looking around the lab. "There must be something here that we can use to stop his soul from dying!"

"Well, first of all, we have to somehow shut down this electric barrier so Albel can get out…" Lancar said, pointing out the barrier that stood in the way between Albel and the rest of the party. "Albel! Go to that control panel over there and shut the system down! I'll explain to you what to do!"

"Ugh…" Albel weakly groaned, staggering over to the computer system to shut it down.

"Alright… you see that menu on the screen, right?" Lancar yelled, telling him the instructions. "First go to the select function option, then…"

"…" Albel stopped after punching in a few commands, shaking his head and turning away from the computer. "No… it's no use… I may not be familiar with these devices, but even I can tell when it is completely busted… this thing's not even responding at all."

"WHAT? IT'S BUSTED?" Lancar yelled, slamming his fist into the ground. "DAMN! What do we do now?"

"Let's destroy the barrier ourselves!" Roger said, holding up his axe.

"No… that'd be impossible…" Jeiuce said, looking at the barrier. "It would fry you immediately… if you tried to touch it… and it's also designed to… absorb any type of spell you cast on it…"

"Ugh… dammit, Luther!" Fayt yelled, cursing at Luther. "What do we do now?"

Suddenly, the Creation Engine tank in the back exploded lightly with a loud bang, knocking everyone down to the ground. It continued shaking even more violently, with a bright white light flashing from it in intervals.

"U…ugh…" Maria moaned, getting back up to her feet… "The Creation engine… it's about to explode!"

"Damn, how much time do we have?" Fayt asked, running to the back to pick up unconscious Sophia. "We all need to get out of here!"

"A…according to my scanner, we have only 7 and a half minutes!" Lancar replied, checking his quad scanner and picking up unconscious Nel from the floor. "And that's only a rough estimate calculated from the output energy reading… the engine itself is so unstable right now that it can possibly explode at any time!"

"W… what about Albel?" Clair asked, staggering around in confusion. "We can't just leave him!"

"…" Albel stood still in his side of the room, closing his eyes in deep thought. "You all go ahead… and get out of this place…" Albel said, finally coming to a decision. "Don't worry about me… I'll get out of here on my own somehow…"

"N…no!" Clair yelled in disagreement, losing her composure. "I'm not leaving you here! Everyone else can go… but I'm going to stay here with you!"

"Don't be foolish, Clair! You all need to escape from this place as soon as possible!" "It's no use for you to stay here… this barrier that separates us can't be shut down… we can't meet up either way!"

"Well, then how are you going to get out of here?" Reen yelled, concerned for Albel as well. "And what about your soul disappearing?… There has to be SOMETHING that we can do!"

"Don't worry… I'll find something on this side of the room…" Albel said calmly, looking around to the various computers in the back room, most of which were already broken. "Luther must have had a plan to escape this place, too… he wouldn't have put this barrier up otherwise… Just go… I'll find my own way out of here."

"You're… not going to disappear, right, Albel?" Clair asked, choking back on her voice with tears now freely running down the side of her cheeks. "And you're going to find your way out, right? Promise me, Albel… just promise me that I'll see you again…"

"I promise." Albel said firmly, smiling at Clair. "I'll get out of here, alive. You have my word."

"AHH…" Maria screamed, as another minor explosion shook the entire lab. "W… we have to hurry… there's only 6 minutes left!"

"Let's go, Clair…" Fayt said, putting his hand on Clair's shoulder. "Just believe in Albel… I know he'll get out of here somehow…"

"…" Clair fell into silence with her head down, only to raise her head back up a moment later to look at Albel straight in the eyes. "I love you, Albel." Clair said straight out, tears still flowing from her eyes. She had to say it… she thought that this may be her last chance.

"…!" Albel looked back at Clair, shocked by what she had just said. After a moment, Albel simply looked back to her with a little smile. "I'll only return that… after I meet you again back in our own world…" Albel said, assuring Clair that he will survive. "Just to show you how much I mean it…"

Clair simply smiled back at him with her eyes closed, and then turned around to run towards the exit of the room. "Thank you…" Clair said, with her back to Albel. "I'll be waiting…"

"Alright everyone… let's get out of here quickly!" Maria said, instructing everyone to head towards the door. "Albel… I'll see you again soon." Maria said, giving him a little smile before running towards the door.

"You can do it, Albel… just have faith in your own existence…" Lancar said, turning back with Nel in his arms to run down and running to the door. "I'll see you later."

"Hmph. Just hurry up. Fool." Albel said, grinning back.

"May the grace of Apris be with you..." Tynave said politely before running towards the door herself.

"We believe in you, Albel!" Peppita encouraged him, before heading towards the exit. "So you believe in yourself too, okay?"

"Hmph..." Jeiuce simply grunted at Albel then nodded at him, showing his respect before turning around to run towards the exit.

"You, the real man's men, will survive! As a fellow man's men myself, I just know you will!" Roger said, before trotting towards the door. "Don't prove me wrong now!"

"Please be safe… okay, big brother?" Meena pleaded with tears in her eyes, before being dragged along by Roger. "I'll be praying for you!"

"There is nothing that a great Edarl Swordsman like you can't handle… I know you'll find your way out of this…" Raditz smiled at Albel, paying his respects and bowing before turning back to run out from the room. "We'll have another duel when you come back, okay?"

"I swear… if you make Lady Clair cry… I'm never going to forgive you!" Farleen yelled at Albel with a sad look on his face, before turning back towards the exit. "So you better come back!"

"Hmph…" Albel simply grinned back, instructing Farleen to hurry out. "I will… worm."

"ALBEL! I LOVE YOU! If I could hug you right now, I would…" Reen cried at Albel with tears in her eyes, before flying back towards the door to exit the lab. "Please come back… okay? A big hug from me will be waiting for you…"

"…" Albel nodded, simply returning her a smile.

"You know, I still haven't given you that rematch that you asked for…" Fayt said, with Sophia in his arms. "If you still want it… We'll do it after you return, alright?" Fayt nodded at Albel to show his respect, then turned around and ran towards the door.

"Hmph. You bet I still want it. Just make sure you have plenty of practice, worm." Albel told Fayt as the last two people remaining exited the room. Albel was now on his own, having to figure out what to do from here.

"Ugh…" Albel groaned again as he fell to one knee, clutching his heart. '_Damn…no… the first thing I need to do is to survive somehow… If I'm still alive right now… it must mean my other soul is still alive… there's got to be something that I can do with it…'_ Albel looked around, his eyes stopping at the Soul Transfer Device that Luther had used to transfer his soul into Albel's original body.

"That's it…!" Albel said, having an idea of what to do. "I'll just use that device over there to transfer the other half of my soul back into my own body… so that I can live on…" Albel immediately went over to the Soul Transfer Device, trying to figure out its mechanics as quickly as possible. However, as he was fiddling around with the device, Albel suddenly heard a faint voice, talking to him.

"Your plan… is not… going to… work…" the voice said, sounding like it was about to die real soon. "The soul… transfer… cannot… put… divided… souls… together… it's… useless… to you…"

"L… LUTHER?" Albel yelled, as he immediately turned around to see Luther lying motionlessly in a pool of blood, still motionless. "You're… you're still alive?"

* * *

Clair, Maria, Fayt and others hurried down the stairs of the collapsing Time and Space Lab, trying to get back to the portal that would take them back to Elicoor. The group arrived back at the first floor, running towards the portal that they had come in from.

"3 minutes left…" Lancar told everyone, checking back to his quad scanner. "Let's find that portal back to our dimension and get out of here!"

"We're almost there…" Maria said, turning the corner to the area where the portal was located. "We should be able to make it out in t…."

Maria suddenly stopped, looking at the area that they had come in from in a total mess. The falling debris from the tremor had landed on top of the system, breaking it.

"Damn! This portal system is already completely destroyed!" Raditz yelled, slamming his fist into the wall nearby him. "What the hell do we do now?"

"There is… another portal… out in the overworld…" Jeiuce pointed towards the exit of the lab, still clutching his wounds in pain. "Just follow me… I'll lead the way…."

Everyone followed Jeiuce out to the overworld of the Daemoneum, the whole continent now rumbling violently from the sudden outburst of creation energy. The party ran towards the northeast corner of the continent in about a minute, finding another portal system there still intact.

"This should still work…" Jeiuce said, telling everyone to get into the portal. "The _'Eye of the Truth'_ should be able to power it up… use it… it should be able to take you all back to your dimension…"

"Let's hurry!" Fayt yelled, as him and everyone else ran into the large circular area in order to prepare for the portal. Everyone, but Jeiuce that is; Jeiuce simply stood back, not entering the circle.

"Jeiuce, hurry up!" Raditz yelled, waving Jeiuce in. "Why are you just standing there?"

"I cannot come with you…" Jeiuce said, clutching his wounds. "I shall… stay here…"

"What? Are you out of your mind?" Lancar yelled, questioning why Jeiuce would do such a thing. "That creation engine is going to explode at the energy magnitude of 10! It's going to obliterate this entire dimension!"

"I am… well aware of that…" Jeiuce said, with a brave look on his face. "I know this world's going to be… completely destroyed… without a trace…"

"Then what are you waiting for? Come with us!" Clair pleaded, asking Jeiuce to hurry in to the circle. "Come back with us to our dimension!"

"I am a demon… I do not belong in your world…" Jeiuce explained, telling them why he can't come along. "_This_ is my world… and this is where I belong… even if it is about to… meet its demise…"

"NO!" Meena cried, begging Jeiuce to come along with them. "You can't stay! sniff If you do, you're going to die! I don't want to see you die… sniff you're our friend! WAAAAH!"

"Yes, I will indeed die along with this world…" Jeiuce said, turning to look around the Daemonium for the last time. "…But at least I will finally be able to rest… free of all grudges and regrets…"

"Huh…?" Raditz mumbled, not knowing what to say.

"There is something that I haven't told you mortals yet… about why I became a demon…" Jeiuce started explaining, with his back still turned to the party. "I became a demon… because I despised the nature of the mortal ways… which I thought was full of cowardice and betrayal…"

"…" Everyone stood quietly, listening to Jeiuce's story.

"Indeed, I was once a mortal, just like you…" Jeiuce continued, looking up to the thunder-filled sky of the Daemoneum. "I happened to be a high-ranked soldier in an army, as a matter of fact… a proud soldier with strong values in honour and loyalty… but my faith in those values were crushed in one mission… when my comrades abandoned me during a mission in an act of cowardice and betrayal..."

"…" Everyone listened along, shocked by how Jeiuce had originally come into being.

"I was killed, and was reborn as a demon… vowing to punish and haunt such dishonourable and despicable race known as mankind…" Jeiuce continued with his story, turning around to face the party for one last time. "But over time, I forgot about how I came to being here as a demon… and got caught up in the vile acts of Romero and Saphiro… manipulated into doing everything that I had originally vowed to fight against. It was not until you mortals beat me, that I came to my senses... And from traveling with all of you… I've learned that… that perhaps there is still some with values of loyalty and honour among your kind, after all."

"That's right." Maria said, looking back at Jeiuce with a slight smile. "Everyone may lose faith of good in all of us sometimes… but we have to remember that there are still people with the right values in all of us… in all race…. just like how we were able to meet such an honourable demon, like you, Jeiuce."

"Just by learning that there are mortals like you out there… my soul can finally rest easy..." Jeiuce said, with a little grin. "Perhaps the day will come… when I will be reborn into the mortal world... I look forward to it."

"Yes. Me too." Raditz firmly snuck out his hand, to offer him a handshake. "I hope it will be soon. Thanks for all your help, Jeiuce."

"And I thank all of you." Jeiuce said, shaking Raditz' hand. "Now, hurry up and return to your own dimension! There isn't much time left…"

"30 seconds left until the explosion!" Lancar yelled after checking his quad scanner, immediately turning to Raditz. "Raditz! The_ 'Eye of the Truth'_! Hurry!"

"Gotcha!" Raditz replied, immediately reaching back to take out the 'Eye of the Truth'. The ancient Moorian relic started glowing in bright red, creating a big black vortex in front of them. "Let's go!" Everyone went into the portal one by one, to return back home.

"Goodbye, Jeiuce…" Raditz turned around to say his farewell to Jeiuce, before entering the vortex himself. The vortex slowly shrunk, disappearing into thin air.

'_Farewell… mortals…'_ Jeiuce said in his mind, as a bright white flash suddenly erupted from the Time and Space Lab…

* * *

Albel looked down to fallen body of Luther, who had just told him that Soul Transfer Machine only works once with each soul. Albel immediately unsheathed his katana in reaction, but then put it back after coming to his senses.

"I… I guess it makes sense that you're still alive…" Albel said, "I'm still here breathing, after all… so you're saying that this machine here isn't going to work for me?"

"Yes… that machine is… useless…" Luther said very faintly, near death. "It's impossible… to put a divided soul… back together… that's the Demon Mirror's… doing… it… cannot be… fixed by the… machine…"

"Damn…ugh…" Albel cursed, clutching his heart. "Is this it… no… there has to be another way…"

"…The ring… on the finger… of my old body..." Luther mumbled, referring the ring that was on the finger of his old blonde-haired vessel. "Go… go get it… it's… your only… chance…"

"HUH?" Albel yelled, walking up to Luther. "What are you planning now, maggot?"

"I'm not… planning… anything…" Luther muttered, breathing heavily. "I'm… just trying… to show you… the way out of… here…"

"WHAT?" Albel asked, totally stunned by what Luther had just said. "You're trying to… help… me? But why… why the hell would you do that…?"

"Consider it… a small return… for… freeing me… from my insanity…COUGH…" Luther replied, coughing up blood.

"Freeing you… from your insanity?" Albel asked, not believing his ears. "What do you mean by that…"

"The thought of my own creation… reaching the level intelligence… of my own… and gaining their… own free will… I couldn't… handle the thought of it…" Luther struggled in telling his story, his voice slowly fading. "But by being… reborn… as data… I could feel… the same physical pain… the emotional pain… as I did… before… that's when I realized… you are indeed… no different from… us. And by defeating… me… by defying… all parameters… you've proved… that your emotions… are indeed more than… just fabrications… and that you are… indeed capable of… thinking and evolving… on your own…"

"…" Albel stood quietly in thought, realizing that Luther was finally acknowledging their existence as real beings…

"And if all that is indeed true… you will… live on… even if… the other half… of your soul… dies…" Luther muttered faintly, using the last ounce of energy to point at the Sacred Orb on the table nearby. "Now… get… the ring… and use that… orb… the ring will… enable you… to…" Luther suddenly stopped, his eyes closing and his head tilting to the side.

"The ring? The Sacred Orb? What about them?… U…G….H…" Albel asked Luther, when he suddenly felt a flash making him feel VERY weak, sending him collapsing to the floor. Albel felt his body turning completely still, everything around him suddenly turning hazy.

"Ugh…" Albel moaned weakly on the floor, with his body no longer responding. "What's… happening…?"

Luther was now dead, and the other half of Albel's soul immediately died along with it. With that, Albel's own half of the soul started to slowly disappear as well…

'_No… I can't… I have to… survive…' _Albel weakly thought to himself, with his voice having been now completely lost. _'I promised… to everyone… that I would… return…'_

'_Ahh…'_ Albel struggled to stare out into the space in front of him, only to not be able to see anything at all. Everything was pitch black, and absolutely nothing could be seen in front of him, or anywhere else. With his eyesight now totally lost, everything suddenly became deathly quiet, as his sense of hearing disappeared as well.

'_Total… darkness… nothingness… is this… what death… is?'_ Albel wondered in his mind, as his memories and thoughts also slowly started to fade away like water evaporating from a boiling kettle. _'Am… I… i… i…'_ Albel stopped completely still, with his heart now no longer beating and his body no longer responding to anything. Every bit of thought and memories from Albel's mind started becoming deleted one by one, slowly counting down towards zero.

With only few bits of memories and thoughts remaining, Albel's mind was now almost completely erased from existence. Albel looked into his mind for what was possibly to be the last time, to see only few thoughts and memories remaining in his mind and soul. Each of them started glowing weakly like a dying firefly in the night sky, softly echoing out to him…

_'----Have faith in your own existence…you believe in yourself too, okay…You, the real man's men, will survive…A big hug from me will be waiting …if all that is indeed true, you will live on…I'll be waiting… And no matter what happened in the past, Albel's Albel… it doesn't change a thing. The person that we see right now is the only Albel. Not anyone else---'_ Each of the voices from the past continued to echo and echo throughout the darkness of which was now Albel's mind, as all the faint glowing lights slowly came together to gradually become brighter and bigger. Right at that moment, a familiar voice called out to Albel, speaking to his near-depleted soul.

"_Albel… I was only able to meet you again for a short time, but… I was so happy… to see you as the man that you had become…"_ The soft, gentle voice told him, as Albel slowly started to regain his sense of thought_. "I love you, my son, with all of my heart… just remember back to everything that you cherish and love… and let it all come to you…"_

"_Find out your own truth, Albel…only you can discover the truth of your own soul..."_ Another deep voice called out to him, encouraging him to look deep inside your soul._ "Embrace the good, my son… and accept its existence within yourself…"_

Albel slowly gathered up what he had left of his thoughts and memories, listening closely to what they all had to say. It was the comments from all his comrades, encouraging him to keep on going. At the end of it all, saw a new image in his mind… an image of Clair smiling at him, saying the last words that she had said to him. _"I'll be waiting."_

At that moment, Albel immediately remembered back to his promise to Clair.

He had to survive. He had to survive in order to return to her.

* * *

Few moments after Clair, Raditz, Maria and others all exited the Daemoneum via the transporter, the massive creation engine in the 10th floor of the Time and Space Lab finally exploded in full force, engulfing the entire dimension in a flash of white light. The catastrophic explosion spread all the way to the outer extents of the dimension almost instantly, simply disintegrating everything that had existed within the Daemoneum with its magnitude 10 – class energy.

The Time and Space Lab… The continent… and the demons… and everyone else that had remained…

They were now all gone.

Daemoneum was now wiped clean.

* * *

**Chapter 61: The New World**

Clair, Fayt, Maria, Raditz, and all others jumped out from the vortex of the Daemoneum, quickly realizing that they had arrived back at a wide, brown open area. Everyone looked around as the vortex closed itself for the last time, observing the familiar scenery around them.

"This is…" Maria said, immediately recognizing where they were. "This is Aire Hills… near Kirlsa…"

"Phew…" Roger sighed in relief, glad to be back. "We're finally home…"

"WOO HOO!" Reen yelled out happily, glad that they had made it back to their own dimension safely. "It's so good to be back!"

"Yeah… we all made it." Lancar said with a little grin, crossing his arms. "Congratulations, everyone. We did it."

"So… IS this it?" Farleen asked, turning around to ask everyone. "Is everything… all over now, then?"

"Well, we defeated Luther for good this time around…" Fayt said, summing up the situation. "And with the Daemoneum now completely destroyed, our dimension will be at peace once again."

"And we were all able to rescue Fayt, Sophia, and Miss Nel and bring them back here safely, too!" Peppita said, "So I guess we did pretty much everything that we can!"

"So I guess it is finally all over!" Raditz yelled, pumping his fist in triumph.

"No… it is not over…" Clair said adamantly, with her back still to rest of the crowd. "We still have to wait for Albel's return…"

"That's right…" Lancar said while closing his eyes, knowing fully well that the chances of Albel surviving and escaping were very slim. "Let's all hope that he was able to escape that lab in time..."

"I shall wait for him here. He promised all of us that he would return…" Clair told everyone, putting on a brave face. "I'm sure he is going to come back here soon"

"Then I'm going to wait with you, Miss Clair!" Meena said cheerfully, running besides Clair to hold her hand in support. "Big brother wouldn't lie… I know he'll come back to us any time now!"

"Don't worry, Clair… we'll _all_ wait here with you." Maria said, showing her full support. "We'll wait here for as long as we can."

"Then I'll contact the Lazeria and tell them to come down and meet us here… we all have injuries that needs to be taken care of, anyway." Lancar said, taking out his communicator to contact Marietta. "And we should inform her majesty and everyone else about what happened…"

* * *

Upon Lancar's request, Spaceship Lazeria immediately flew to where the party was in Aire Hills to meet up with them. Marietta, Steeg, Lieber, and the rest of the crew teleported down to embrace the group, congratulating them for their success in their mission to save the world. The medical staff took care of all the injuries that the fighters had suffered, and revived the ones who were still unconscious such as Nel and Sophia.

Queen Romeria then soon followed to teleport down along with Elena and Lasselle, to congratulate the warriors personally for their successful completion of the mission. The Queen politely and humbly bowed to everyone, in show of her gratitude and respect. Maria and Lancar then went on to fill everyone in on what had happened to their group at the Daemoneum; after about an hour or so of talking, they explained in detail what they did, what the truth behind the whole war was, and about how they were able to finally put an end to it all. The crew of the Lazeria and the Queen listened in carefully, finding it all truly fascinating and hard to believe.

"So… that was the true reason for the demon invasion of our land…" The Queen said, nodding her head with her eyes closed. "The man responsible needed the power of the Sacred Orb to return to his own world…"

"Yes, your majesty. But we were able to stop him in the end." Maria replied politely. "Both the Daemonium and Luther are no more… and with that, the time of peace shall return to our entire universe."

"Speaking of the Sacred Orb, where is it?" Lasselle butted in to ask, curious about the holy orb's whereabouts. "You all remembered to bring it back, didn't you?"

"OH NO!" Farleen shrieked then put her hands to her mouth, with her and everyone having totally forgotten about the Sacred Orb. "I'm sorry… Magistrate Lasselle… We…"

"It was… left behind at the Daemoneum…!" Clair muttered, totally stunned. "This is horrible… our national treasure… is…"

"It… it must have been destroyed in the blast…" Tynave mumbled, dumbfounded. "What… what have we done…?"

"W… WHAT? THE SACRED ORB… IS DESTROYED? N…NO!" Lasselle yelled out loud in disbelief, freaking out. "It… it can't be… this is truly catastrophic! That was the orb that defined the very existence of our Sacred Kingdom… oh... holy mother, what shall become of our Kingdom now…?"

"Your majesty, we must beg for your forgiveness." Nel bowed down to the Queen, her head down in shame. "Due to the circumstances of the situation, we could not retrieve the Sacred Orb from the enemy… we have failed you, your majesty… Please punish us justly for our incompetence."

"Nel… Clair… and the rest of you… please, stand up." The Queen told them to get back up, looking surprised yet strangely calm. "It is indeed devastating for me to hear that our Sacred Orb has been destroyed... but while it may be truly unfortunate, I am certain that you all had your reasons for not being able to retrieve it. I do not fault you. The most important thing is that you were all able to return to our world safely, and that you were able to save our world from the demon threats … if the Sacred Orb had to be sacrificed for that very cause… then so be it. I have no regrets."

"Your majesty…" Clair mumbled, feeling truly humbled and touched by her words.

"Yes… our Kingdom shall live on... with or without the Sacred Orb." Elena said, following up on the Queen's words. "We're just glad that all of you were able to make it back to our world safely."

"Well… everyone except for one… " Raditz said with a grim look, turning around to Clair. "Albel is still missing…"

"He will return. I am certain of it." Clair said, still with a determined look on his face. "I will wait here until he does."

"…" Everyone stood silent, each of them knowing that the chances of him returning were getting slimmer and slimmer as the time passed. Everyone stayed together, agreeing to wait for Albel for a little while longer.

* * *

But even after another 2 hours, there was still no sign of Albel. Some of the crewmembers of Lazeria even went back into the ship to scan for any portal activity on the planet, but found nothing. Some of those who were waiting sat down on the ground, and some started walking back and forth, growing more and more worried by each passing minute.

"It's been 3 hours now…" Raditz said, with a grim look on his face. "There's still no sign of him anywhere…"

"Maybe he didn't make it out in time, Clair…" Lasselle commented, going over to Clair. "I think he would have been here long time ago if he was able to escape successfully… are you sure you want keep waiting like this?"

"Magistrate! How can you say that?" Farleen yelled, concerned for Clair who was looking more and more depressed by the minute. "Think about Lady Clair's feelings…"

"But it's only the truth… you said from the beginning that his chances of getting out were slim, did you not?" Lasselle replied, "I mourn the loss of your friend… but sometimes, you have to realize when to move on. You can't just sit down here and wait for him forever."

"Don't say that we've lost him already!" Peppita yelled, staring at Lasselle in anger. "We still don't know that for sure!"

"…" Clair remained silent, sitting down with her face buried in her arms.

"I hate to agree with him, but he has a point… we have to be realistic here." Lancar said with a serious look, referring to what Lasselle had just said. "If Albel was able to somehow escape, there would be no reason for him to take such a long time to get back…"

"M… maybe he transported to another planet, then!" Reen yelled, not giving up hope. "I mean, there were hundreds of other portals at the Daemoneum too, right?"

"I don't think that would have been possible…" Maria said, looking worried. "I remember Jeiuce specifically telling us that all the portals to other planets were disabled for their operation… to prevent us from escaping alive…"

"And that's all only if he was able to save his own soul from being erased in the first place…" Fayt said, with his head down a bit. "I seriously don't know what he could have done to save himself in that situation…"

"The good cannot exist without the evil… yes… that is indeed the law of human nature." The Queen commented, with her ever-so expressionless look. "If he wasn't able to somehow save the other half of his soul from its demise… then I cannot imagine of how he could have survived, myself."

"Clair…" Nel said, placing her hand on Clair's shoulder to console her. "Let's just all go back for now. If you want, we can go out there and search for him together… he could still be out there somewhere… but either way, there is nothing else that we can do by just staying here and waiting."

"… Nel…" Clair said, looking back to her best friend. "Thank you…"

"We'll get to the bottom of it. I promise." Nel assured her. "We won't stop until we do."

"Yes. Let us all go back." Lasselle said, looking a bit annoyed from having to stay behind for so long. "We all have lot of work to do ahead of us, now. Let's not slow ourselves down by waiting for someone that may already be dead…"

Before others could scold Lasselle for yet another one of his blunt, insensitive comments, a voice suddenly echoed throughout the field. A very familiar voice, at that.

_Heh… me, dead? Don't be silly… fool!_ The voice said, taunting Lasselle for his comments. _I still got my whole life ahead of me!_

"T… That voice!" Clair yelled in surprise, immediately recognizing whose voice it was.

"W… where did that come from?" Fayt asked in confusion, looking around the see where it came from. "That sounded like…"

Right at that moment, a square-shaped purple panel suddenly appeared on the brown, desolate ground of Aire Hills, right in front of everyone. A rectangular image then rose up from the panel, clearing up to reveal a person standing inside of it. The person then stepped out from the transporter to face the party, slowly making his way forward.

"What are you looking all glum for, worms?" Albel asked as he walked towards the party, alive and well. "We've won. Show some more enthusiasm!"

"A… ALBEL!" Clair yelled, running in to throw herself right into Albel's arms in uttermost joy and relief. She held on to him tightly, as if she was never going to let go. "Y… you're back…"

"Of course I'm back…" Albel replied, smiling and gently putting his hand on Clair's head, returning the hug. "That was the promise, wasn't it?"

"Albel!" Everyone yelled, as they all ran towards Albel to embrace him.

"You did it, Albel! I always believed you could!" Raditz yelled, happy that Albel was able to return safely. "Welcome back!"

"Now, now… how about you two put a little space between each other for just a sec… heh," Lancar said jokingly, as Clair immediately jumped away from Albel, her face turning beet red in embarrassment. "It's good to see you back, Albel."

"Yeah, welcome back, Albel!" Reen said with a smile, giving Albel a big, big hug. "For a sec, I thought I might never see you again!"

"Yeah, you're a bit late … you had us all worried." Maria said, simply showing him a warm smile. "Nonetheless, welcome back."

Peppita and Meena both ran towards Albel to give him a hug of their own, much to his awkwardness. Fayt simply nodded his head, welcoming him back like how respecting rivals usually would. Nel, Farleen and Tynave all just smiled back, all glad that Albel had made it back. With everyone having a heartwarming reunion, Clair noticed that Albel had been holding something in his claw hand. It was a big, shiny, silver orb.

"Albel! You have the Sacred Orb!" Clair said, puzzled but happy with the unexpected surprise. "I didn't know that you had it!"

"Yeah… I needed the orb's power to get out of the place." Albel said, explaining his story. "It was the only way out for me at that point…"

"The only way… out?" Fayt asked, turning back to look at the familiar-looking purple transporter that Albel had come out from. "Albel… are you saying that you've just come from…"

"…Gemity." Albel replied. "I used the Sacred Orb to create the gate to the 4D space."

"4…4D Space?" Maria asked, dumbfounded. "But how? Without our powers, it would be impossible for you to go there, or to even exist there!"

"This ring here allows for all that." Albel said, showing everyone the small red ring on his index finger. "It somehow allowed me to emulate all of your powers within the 4D space..."

"W… what? How is that possible?" Fayt asked, finding it hard to believe. "How can a mere ring like that emulate our powers? And where were you able to get it from?"

"I don't understand all the advanced, technical crap… it would be useless for me to talk." Albel said, suddenly holding up the Sacred Orb. "So I'll just have someone else that is little more knowledgeable in this field tell you all about it..."

"S… someone else?" Fayt asked, as the Sacred Orb starting glowing brighter and brighter. With a big flash, a big projection image shot out from the Sacred Orb to display a group of 6 people standing before them. It was Blair, with Aire, Leiria, Shar, Oreas and Flad standing behind her.

"Hello everyone." Blair greeted everyone, with the usual warm smile on her face. "It's good to see all of you once again."

"HEEEEYYY!" Flad yelled, waving out to everyone from the projector. "You guys all remember me, right? It's me! Flad!" The rest of the Project Apris team simply bowed, showing their respect.

"B… Blair? Flad?" Fayt asked, astonished with what he was seeing. "H… how did you just do that?"

"Well, it's nice to see you too, Fayt Leingod." Blair said jokingly, crossing her arms. "I can see that your manners still haven't changed over the last two years…"

"S… sorry Blair…" Fayt apologized, scratching his head. "I'm just really surprised to see you all again… that's all…"

"I am too, surprised…" Blair said, smiling back. "After the events of two years ago, I did not expect to see any of you ever again, either. Don't get me wrong, though… I'm certainly glad for this opportunity to meet you once again."

"B… Blair? How is all this possible?" Sophia asked, totally confused. "I thought I was the only one with the ability to communicate with you within the Eternal Sphere…"

"Yes, I was wondering that myself…" Maria said, crossing her arms in thought. "And Albel said that he had just come from the 4D space… how is he able to manipulate our powers? You're going to fill us in, right?"

"Don't worry… I'll explain everything to you, one by one." Blair said, as she started with her explanation. "Albel is able to manipulate your powers, by using the special ring that he is wearing at the moment."

"Yeah, I've already told these fools about that." Albel said, showing everyone his red ring with various symbols inscribed inside of it. "This is the ring that I took from Luther's original body."

"You took it from Luther's old body?" Lancar asked, confused about how it is supposed to work. "But what's so special about that ring?"

"Um… I can explain that part!" Flad said, stepping up to tell everyone. "You all know how Luther captured Fayt, Sophia and Maria in order to retrieve their genes, right? Well, it seems that he copied the symbological patterns from each of your genes and inscribed it onto that ring!"

"So that's what Albel meant when he said that the ring had all three of their powers…" Peppita said, finally understanding how Albel was able to exist in the 4D space. "I can't believe Luther was able to make that kind of a device for himself…"

"But… how come we can ALL see and talk to you right now, Blair?" Sophia asked, confused about one more thing… "2 years ago, only I could communicate with you through the Sacred Orb when we were in the Eternal Sphere…"

"That was because your powers hadn't manifested fully at the time." Aire spoke, explaining it to Sophia. "Fayt and Maria had both manifested fully, and were able to manipulate the space around them with their genes, as well. That's how everyone else in your party was able to exist in 4D Space 2 years ago, even though they didn't have the same genes as the three of you. This rings works in the similar way… it just manipulates the property of space surrounding its user."

"So right now, it's manipulating the space around all of us so that it can connect us to the projection of you guys…" Sophia said, figuring it all out. "Okay, I get it now…"

"We only learned about what was happening in the Eternal Sphere after Albel came to us…" Blair said. "We had no idea that Luther had programmed himself into the Eternal Sphere in the past… I must apologize for all the trouble he has caused to your world."

"There's no need for you to apologize, Blair…" Fayt said. "It wasn't your fault at all…"

"But still… as the new Owner of the Sphere Corporation, I'm directly responsible for all happenings within the Eternal Sphere…" Blair said, her head slightly down in shame. "We should have been more aware of the whole situation… sorry about everything."

"Okay… I get the bit about how Albel was able to go to and exist in the 4D space…" Reen said, scratching her head in confusion. "But how did Albel manage to live through all that? Luther said if one half of his soul died, Albel would die as well…"

"Yes…as you all already know, the good and evil in a soul cannot exist without each other…." Blair explained. "Therefore, Luther naturally thought that Albel would die as well if the other half of his soul died. But what he failed to realize was that the "good" in Albel still existed afterwards."

"What do you mean?" Roger asked. "Didn't the 'good' soul of Albel die when Luther died?"

"It did. But it seems that Albel still had the 'good' left in his soul, which allowed him to survive and live on. It seems that a new 'good' soul was created from his remaining 'Evil' soul, somehow…" Aire explained, being the main man in the character programming department. "I cannot really explain that part, either… you all seem to have this latent ability to create something without our intervention … it's almost as if you are able to create a programming code for your own at your own will. It's a truly fascinating phenomena which is even beyond _our_ scope of understanding as programmers…"

"There's nothing complicating about it." Albel said, turning to Clair and smiling at her. "We can all think, act, and feel on our own. It's simple as that."

"Yes. I agree with you there." Blair said, in response to Albel's words. "And that brings us to our next point… the main reason why we wanted to talk to all of you…"

"The main reason?" Sophia asked. "About what, Blair?"

"We all have an announcement to make to all of you." Oreas spoke, making the big announcement. "Remember 2 years ago when we suggested the Eternal Sphere to be moved to a museum where it will be kept safe from all interference? We think that this is the right time for the move to take place."

"Now? Why now?" Fayt asked. "Why is this the right time?"

"With the program of Luther now deleted, there are now absolutely no programs left in the Eternal Sphere that can pose harm to your existence. We did a throughral check one last time to make sure this is true." Shar said, explaining their reason. "So if we place the Eternal Sphere in the museum now, free of all outside interference, it would ultimately mean that our two worlds would finally become independent from each other. This is what we want for your own sake, and I'm sure that this is what you all want, as well."

"But can we… can we really become our _own_ world?" Maria asked, her mind in deep thought. "That's what I thought after our battle 2 years ago… I thought that we've finally become a world of our own. But then I learned that it was really nothing but a backup program… our world was still nothing but a cheap toy for someone to play with…"

"Backup?" Blair asked, not really understanding what she was saying. "What do you mean?"

"Luther said that you ran a backup program of the Eternal Sphere…" Maria explained. "And then told us that's how our world was able to survive 2 years ago… it's the truth, is it not?"

"No… we had never run any backup of the Eternal Sphere, at all!" Blair said, explaining what really happened to Maria. "As a matter of fact, Luther destroyed that very backup during his fight against all of you 2 years ago…"

"W… what?" Fayt asked. "Then how did we manage to all survive?"

"I don't understand the exact mechanics of how it happened, but…" Oreas said, explaining what had happened to the Eternal Sphere after the fight 2 years ago. "Luther was definitely successful in deleting the Eternal Sphere in its entirety… everything was erased, and nothing was left behind. Then somehow, miraculously, the Eternal Sphere was able to _re-create itself_ back to how it originally was!"

"We… re-created ourselves?" Lancar asked, still confused. "Is… such thing even possible? How the hell can a data re-create itself?"

"Just like what Aire had said before, you all seem to possess the ability to create something on your own, without our intervention…" Leiria said. "Somewhat like what happened with Albel here just now, with that whole 'soul' business…"

"So this means… our beliefs were true, after all!" Maria said, with a relieved smile. "We were able to re-create ourselves because of our own will to live on… because we believed in validity of our own existence..."

"Yeah!" Flad agreed. "It's just like what I told you guys 2 years ago… you guys are really not all that different from us!"

"Yes. And from what Albel has told us, Luther also acknowledged that, as well." Blair said, thinking back to her now-deceased brother. "I have to thank all of you for freeing my brother from his state of insanity… even if it had to be at the cost of his own life…"

"Luther also acknowledged our existence?" Sophia asked, very surprised.

"He was the very one that helped me escape from that Lab." Albel said, to the big surprise of everyone. "I wouldn't have made it out without his help."

"So we can finally live on our own now, and have full control of our own destiny…" Fayt said, looking up into the sky. "The moment has finally come…"

"But there are few things left that we need you to do for us," Blair said. "In order to have our two worlds truly separated…"

"Really?" Maria asked. "And what might those be?"

"First, all symbological weapons created concerning the 4D space must be destroyed." Blair said, looking at Fayt, Maria and Sophia. "This means that your genes of Destruction, Alteration, and Connection, will have to be erased."

"W… WHAT?" Raditz asked, fearing the worst. "Don't tell me you're going to _kill _them?"

"No… of course not." Blair replied, assuring Raditz that it wasn't the case. "Aire here is in charge of all character parameters… he will be able to delete the symbols concerned that are inscribed in your DNA code. With your approval, that is. Fayt… Maria… Sophia… will you all accept?"

"Yes." Sophia accepted, without hesitation. "If it is truly going to separate our worlds… then please do it."

"I will also accept." Maria said, thinking that this is what she wanted regardless. "It has always been my dream to live on as a normal human being… this is my chance."

"Thank you, Blair." Fayt said, agreeing to her proposal "By doing this, you are lifting the burden on all three of us…"

"Alright then… let's do this…" Aire said, as a computer appeared in front of him. Aire punched in various commands to the computer for about 30 seconds, and then executed the operation. Fayt, Maria, and Sophia all suddenly flashed in golden light, their parameters now changed. "That should do it."

"Thanks, Aire." Fayt thanked him, though he felt like nothing much had changed within his body. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes… there is one more thing." Blair went on. "All special Intervention Devices remaining here in the Eternal Sphere must be destroyed, in order to prevent future access of your world by us 4D beings. And there is only one special ID left here in the Eternal Sphere…"

"The Sacred Orb..." Albel said, looking at the orb in his hand.

"THE SACRED ORB? Preposterous! We cannot allow for such travesty!" Lasselle yelled, furious at the suggestion. "We will never let anyone destroy our Kingdom's most sacred treasure!"

"Silence, Lasselle." The Queen said, closing her eyes and thinking for a little bit. "Very well, then." The Queen said, to the shock of everyone. "Please have the Sacred Orb destroyed."

"Y… YOUR MAJESTY?" Lasselle asked, opposing the Queen's decision. "No… please reconsider! We cannot allow this to happen! That orb is the very source of your majesty's powers… and it's the holy relic which blesses our land with…"

"No, Lasselle. My decision has been made. I will allow for the Sacred Orb to be destroyed." The Queen said, explaining the reasoning for her decision. "It is the only way in which the two worlds will become completely independent from each other. Furthermore, I feel that we Aquarians have relied on its power for way too long. It is now time for us to take control of our own matters and no longer be dependent on such objects…"

"…" Lasselle fell silent, lost on what to say.

"And Albel… you will also have to destroy the ring that you are wearing, as well." Blair said, wrapping it all up. "Well, that's about all of it. I'll say it again… thank you all for everything that you have done for us. We have each learned many important life lessons from you all… we'll never forget them."

"No, thank you, Blair… and the rest of you…" Fayt said, politely bowing in a show of respect. "Thanks for everything."

"Bye, everyone!" Flad said, while waving goodbye to everybody "Don't forget about us, okay?"

"Good luck." Blair said, as she said one more thing before going offline for good. "This is your own world now… so make it a good one! Farewell…"

The projection then faded, leaving nothing but the orb.

"Alright. We're just two steps away." Fayt said. "Albel… the ring."

"I know." Albel said, taking the ring out from his finger and dropping it into the palm of his claw hand. Albel then rolled up his claw hands into a fist with great force, reducing the ring into useless debris.

"Okay. One more to go." Maria said, looking over to Queen Romeria one more time. The Queen simply nodded, telling them to proceed.

"Do the honours, Albel." Fayt told him, handing him the Sacred Orb.

"…" Albel fell in thought for a second looking at the Sacred Orb, and then turned around to look at Clair. Clair just simply smiled back at him and gave him a nod, telling him to do it. Albel returned the smile, and then stepped away from everyone. Albel then tossed the Orb high in the air, waiting for it to reach his peak and then start coming down…

"HWAAA!" Albel yelled as he jumped up towards the falling orb, making a powerful upward slash right through it.

Albel's Crimson Scourge crushed through the orb, reducing it into dozens of pieces.

With that, it was finally all over.

* * *

**Chapter 62: Epilogue**

_Time had passed…_

"FAIRY HEAL!" Meena cried out, as her healing spell closed and soothed the patients' wounds by covering it in a warm, holy light. "There you go! It's all better now, mister!"

"Thank you, Meena!" The elderly Vanguardian patient said, looking at where his wounds were in amazement. "Not even a scar was left… your healing ability is truly one of a kind! No one else in this village even comes close!"

"Heehee Thank you, Mr. Distin…" Meena said, smiling brightly back at him. "Just be careful when you go hunting again, okay? Some of the animals can be really, really scary and dangerous!"

"Haha… I'll keep that in mind, little Meena." Mr. Distin said, walking out the door. "Thanks again!"

"You're welcome!" Meena yelled out aloud, waving to him. "Come back whenever you need to!"

At that time, Niklas walked into the house, with his face and clothes all dirty.

"Niklas!" Meena said cheerfully, running to the door to greet her brother. "You're home!"

"Hi, Meena, I'm home." Niklas said, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "So that was Mr. Distin again, huh?"

"Yeah… he got hurt by one of the animals while hunting!" Meena told him. "I told him to be careful… he's always getting hurt…"

"I suppose it's inevitable… he's the only hunter left here in our village, after all." Niklas said. "We should all be grateful, Meena… we wouldn't be able to survive the harsh winters if it wasn't for him."

"Yeah, I know! He's such a kind man!" Meena said cheerfully with a big smile on her face. "So how was work, Niklas? Got any booboos I need to heal for you today?"

"No… just couple scratches here and there… it's nothing major… you don't have to worry about it." Niklas told her. "I'm pretty tired out, though…"

"Wow, Niklas… you've been working so hard…" Meena said, rushing to get a cold cup of water for Niklas. "I hope the Coffir Castle is complete real soon!"

"Yes… I hope so, too. It was a great idea to finally rebuild those ruins…" "When it is completed, we'll all be moving in there… and everything will become much more secure for all of us."

"Yeah!" Meena agreed. "I hope Fayt will come by once again when it's all completed! I would show him around and everything… heehee… it'll be so much fun…"

"Haha… yes, I hope that Fayt will visit us again after it is completed…" Niklas said, thinking about Fayt. "I mean, he was the one who supplied us with all the tools and materials we needed… I want to show him that we were able to use them in the best way we possibly could."

"I really hope that he'll visit us soon…" Meena said, as he went over to the kitchen counter to prepare some food. "Anyway… Niklas, let's eat… I have this place that I want to go to near Pesotto Forest before it becomes too dark…"

"You mean those old ruins? Again?" Niklas asked, worried for Meena. "You went there last time, too… is there something in particular that you are looking for from there, Meena?"

"No… not really…" Meena replied. "I just really like observing those ruins… last time, I saw these ancient writings on the wall… it was all so interesting!"

"Wow, you've been really into archeology and research lately, Meena… especially after you returned from your journey…" Niklas said, wondering what triggered Meena's sudden change of interest. "I thought a doctor was what you always wanted to be…"

"Well, being a doctor is nice too… heehee" Meena giggled, preparing the food. "But Archeology is really fun too!"

'_Nede… Nedian…'_ Meena thought to herself. _'I'll find out the meaning of those words… one day…'_

* * *

DING DONG! 

The doorbell to the Douglas residence at Klaus IV rang, as the 6-year old Erie quickly ran towards the door in excitement. "MOMMY! MOMMY! Daddy's here!" Erie yelled, excited to see her father for the first time in a long time.

"I hear you, dear!" Jeanna yelled, as she immediately came out of her room to hold Erie's hand, making her way over to the door. "Be patient, Erie… daddy won't go anywhere… if you keep running around like that, you're going to trip and hurt yourself!"

"Okey, okey!" Erie said, as she pulled her mother towards the door. "Can we get the door? Please? Please?"

"Haha… alright…" Jeanna said, finally opening the door.

"Jeanna! Erie! I'm home!" Lancar said as he stepped in the door to embrace his family, with a bouquet of flowers in one hand. Erie jumped up to hug her father immediately, kissing him on the cheek countless times.

"DADDY! DADDY! You're home!" Erie cried in joy, finally meeting her father again for first time in about a year. "Welcome home, daddy!"

"Hahahaha! Calm down, munchkin! You're going to make mommy jealous!" Lancar laughed, putting Erie down to the floor to give his wife a hug. "I'm home, sweetheart."

"Welcome home, Lancar… I missed you…" Jeanna said, giving him a sweet, warm kiss on his lips. "And Erie missed you too!"

"I missed you too, honey." Lancar said, handing his wife the bouquet of flowers. "Here you go… this is for you… they're your favourites…"

"Daddy… I'm so happy!" Erie said, jumping up and down in joy. "You're finally here to see me!"

"And I couldn't he happier to see you too, Erie…" Lancar said, giving Erie a peck on the cheek. "I missed you so much…"

"Honey, did something happen?" Jeanna asked, a little bit confused about something. "You told me that you're coming home in such a short notice… I thought that the vacation time wasn't going to come for another 3 months or so?"

"Wow… you sure are quick to notice, Jeanna…" Lancar said, holding up Erie on his shoulder. "Yeah… I just got fired, actually…"

"W… what?" Jeanna asked in surprise, devastated about the news. "Y… you got fired? Why on earth did they do that for, honey? What happened?"

"Hahaha… relax…Jeanni… I was just jokin'!" Lancar laughed, to go over to his wife and give her a little kiss on her forehead. "But it still wasn't that far off though… to tell you the truth, I just handed in my letter of resignation today."

"You… resigned?" Jeanna asked. "How come?"

"I've spent way too much time out there in space… I think it's about time for me to retire, and spend more time with my family. My most recent mission made me realize just how much I missed both of you…" Lancar said, putting down Erie and reaching back to his pocket for something. "And besides… you think I would miss my little daughter's birthday for the 4th straight year in a row? No way! I wasn't going to miss it this time… Erie, daddy's got a little birthday present for ya!"

"A present? Yay! YAY!" Erie jumped up and down, receiving the little wrapped giftbox from her father. She immediately ripped through the wrapping, curious to see what the present was. It was a small, cute stuffed bunny doll, pink in colour.

"Daddy got this from a planet called Roak! Two of my good friends who do business there told me that this is currently the most popular thing on the market!" Lancar told her. "It's supposed to be a good luck charm… so carry it with you at all times… okay, kiddo?"

"Oh, daddy… I love it! Thank you sooo much!" Erie cried, giving her dad another big hug. "I'll always keep it with me… and think of daddy whenever I see it!"

"Honey… I'm glad that you want to spend more time with us and all… but are you sure this is alright?" Jeanna asked, worried that Lancar might've made a haste decision. "Because if you feel that you need to keep working… you should… you shouldn't worry about us… we'll always stand by you and support you, no matter what your decision is..."

"Nah… don't worry… I already got enough money saved up for our retirement, so it's all good." Lancar told her. "And all those journeys that I am taking are just starting to take its toll on me… I should step aside and give some of the younger guys their chance… so that I can just relax for a while with the family I love."

"Well, if that is truly your decision…" Jeanna said, giving Lancar a warm, heartfelt hug. "Then I'm glad, Lancar… thank you… I couldn't be any happier right now…"

"Daddy! Tell me ALL about your adventures!" Erie begged, pulling on her dad's shirt. "Your stories are always so fun and interesting! Can you tell me? Please?"

"Hahaha! Sure! If you want stories, I've got plenty of 'em!" Lancar said, turning to Jeanna. "Honey! Get me a few bottles of beer and a glass of warm milk for the munchkin… it's going to be a LOOONG night!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Lacour Arena in Planet Expel… 

"Alright, Roger! You can do it this time!" Peppita yelled in encouragement from the other side of the Arena, as Roger went up the ladder to attempt his trick once again. "You've seen it now! Just do two spins off each of those two handles, and then do the quadruple somersault right into that final red hoop! It's easy as pie!"

"OKAY! Here we go!" Roger said in determination, as he jumped off the platform to hold on to the hanging handle in the air, and then did a double spin right into the second handle in the air. Roger then immediately spun four times off the handle to spin right through the red hoop, making a perfect landing back on the floor. "I DID IT!"

"Wow! Good job, Roger! You finally did it!" Peppita yelled with a big smile, running over to Roger to congratulate him. "Now, let's do it successfully 20 more times so that you can be ready for the big show tomorrow! Practice makes perfect!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Roger replied enthusiastically as he ran back to the tall platform to climb the ladder again. "Don't worry, Peppy! I won't let you down!"

Meanwhile, Picolotto, Dulcinea, Ursus, and Gornella all sat on the spectator stands, watching the two practice. Thoroughly impressed, Picolotto turned to Dulcinea to talk.

"That boy… he's picking things up really, really quickly…" Picolotto commented on Roger's progress. "I have to say, I'm very impressed!"

"Yes… he does owe it a lot to his natural physical talents, but he's also giving 100 of his efforts, too!" Dulcinea agreed, turning to Gornella the clown. "Gornella, you can learn a thing or two from Roger…"

"But I'm a seasoned veteran, eh? I've been so used to everything now that everything just comes natural to me!" Gornella said confidently. "But I guess that boy is going to have to give it his all if he's ever going to catch up to rest of our talents, eh?"

"Practice makes perfect, Gornella." Ursus said, as he turned to face Gornella. "And as missy would say, effort beats talent every time!"

"Her mother's words… yes, she never forgot it…" Dulcinea said in remembrance of her sister, and then went back to talking about Roger. "It looks like she has told it to Roger too… look at him, the boy is just simply tireless… he just never gives up!"

"I'm just curious on the reason why he joined us in the first place, eh?" Gornella said, a bit suspicious of Roger's intentions. "He just showed up one day with missy! And they already seemed to know each other really well, too! I just find that boy a little odd, eh?"

"Well, whatever the reason is, I'm glad to have him as a part of our family." Picolotto said. "His enthusiasm and spirit has become a very positive influence to all of us!"

"Except for Gornella, apparently…" Dulcinea said coldly, glaring at Gornella. "Alright… that's enough slacking around. Ursus, please move the unnecessary equipments back to the stock room… Gornella, you go back to the dressing room and practice your routines with Quantestorie! He should be in there practicing as we speak."

"But… ma'am! I'm already ready for the performance!" Gornella said with a sweatdrop, trying to talk his way out. "It's pointless for me to keep practicing at this point…"

"This is our big one… none of us can afford to mess up in this performance! I don't care how confident you are, you still need your practice!" Dulcinea said adamantly, pointing her finger to the door. "So go, Gornella… NOW!"

"Y… y… yes ma'am…." Gornella hung his head in defeat, weakly walked away in disappointment.

Meanwhile, Roger performed the trick successfully 20 more times, quickly mastering the routine. Tired out, Roger sat down on the mat to gather his breath.

"Phew… huff that was tough… huff but I think I've finally got it!" Roger told Peppita, looking very confident. "What do you think, Peppita? Do I pass?"

"Yeah, you're looking great, Roger!" Peppita said, giving Roger a little sweet peck on his cheek with her lips. "Thank you for deciding to join us… I'm so happy to have one of my friends as a part of our troupe!"

"Heh….. heh…." Roger mumbled having fallen flat on his back, his face now entirely red and smoking. "I'm glad… to… be here with you too… heh…"

"…" Peppita's face suddenly turned serious, as she turned around look around the huge arena. She was becoming increasingly worried, as this performance was going to be one of their biggest yet.

"What's wrong, Peppita?" Roger asked, wondering why Peppita had turned so serious. "Why are you looking glum for, all of a sudden?"

"Roger… do you think… this performance is going to be successful?" Peppita asked worrily, looking at the stands. "This is the big one… Lacour Arena in Expel… only the best of the best gets to perform here! There's going to be over 100,000 people watching us from those stands! What if they don't like us? Or worse… what if we screw up? I'm getting nervous…"

"Nahhh… there's nothing to worry about, Peppita!" Roger assured her. "Just perform like you guys always have! Treat this show no differently… and there is no way you guys are going to screw up! Just give it your best… I'll do as the best as I can too, okay?"

"Okay!" Peppita smiled brightly back at Roger, encouraged by his words. "Thanks, Roger!"

"No need to mention it!" Roger said, continuing on. "And I have a feeling that the crowd will love us out there tonight… all 100,000 of 'em! After tonight's performance, the Rosetti Troupe is going to go down the history books as one of the greatest Circus Troupes, ever!"

"Wow… Do you really think so?" Peppita asked, flattered by Roger's comments "You're surely confident!"

"As a good friend would say… call it… a hunch!" Roger winked, giving her a thumbs-up. "And my hunches are always right!"

'_I hope that you'll be watching, Cliff…'_ Roger said in his mind, looking high up into the ceiling in memory of his lost comrade. _'Cheer for us up there… okay?'_

* * *

"Hey everyone! Please check out our latest line of rare and unique items!" Reen yelled out to the people walking along the busy streets of Tropp, advertising her store's contents to all the potential shoppers. "Rare scrolls? Antique Weapons? Armours? Accessories? We have it all! We have stuff that other stores could only DREAM of having! So please, take a look!" 

"Haha…" Ruddle chuckled a little bit, amused at seeing Reen advertising to the crowd lively as always.

"And please check out our new items that we have brought in from the Daemoneum!" Reen said, waving people in to take a look. "We got 100 pure demon rocks that we have brought in from our trip to the Daemoneum, acquired first hand! And for all you weapon collectors, we got spears, swords, and other weapons which may hold some mystic demon powers! What will it do? Buy it to find out!"

"Wow… it's good to see that you didn't forget about our business in our trip, Miss Reen… but…" Ruddle said, looking at all the Demon weapons and artifacts with a sweatdrop. "When did you get the chance to get ALL this stuff?"

"Heehee, I'm a merchant first and foremost, Ruddle… I would never forget about our business, even if we had the world to save!" Reen replied, smiling back at Ruddle. "I just picked things up from here and there… I couldn't bear to just pass by all those rare items! Don't worry… it wasn't too much of a hassle!"

"Wow, you sure are a true businesswomen!" Ruddle said, impressed with Reen's enthusiasm for her work. "And thanks to you, our store profits have almost doubled! I have to thank you for all your hard work… and for saving the world, of course. Haha…"

"Nah… I should be thanking you instead, Ruddle" Reen told him, giving him a hug. "Thank you so much for taking care of the store alone while I was gone! I know I left for much longer than I had originally told you… Sorry… I just kinda got caught up with the whole 'saving the world' business"

"No… don't worry, Miss Reen… I understand. What you had to do was much more important, after all." Ruddle said. "So, I guess it was a successful trip on your part! You were able to get the rare items like you originally set out to do!"

"Well, yeah, I guess everything worked out all right…" Reen said while being in deep thought, as she suddenly frowned a bit in look of jealousy. "There was just one thing I wasn't able to get, though… grr…"

"Ah… you mean Master Albel…" Ruddle said, catching on to what Reen was talking about. "Yes indeed… I would never have thought that Lady Clair would have been the one to steal his heart! They really do look great together, though."

"Errrr… yeah, I know…" Reen muttered, with a bittersweet grin on her face. "But being a proud saleswomen that I am… it REALLY ticks me off when I don't get what I want! Grrrrrr…."

"Haha… I definitely understand what you mean…" Ruddle laughed, "But it was very kind of you, Miss Reen… to just let them be. I mean, most girls would have been jealous, and tried to break them up or something..."

"Well, Clair won his heart fair and square… I guess. What can ya do..." Reen just shrugged with her eyes closed, and then went into her 'daydreaming' mode over Albel. "But… Albel was soooooo perfect He really WAS my dream guy… aww… I wonder if I'll ever meet another guy like him…"

Right at that moment, a man started running towards their store, waiving his hand. "HEEEY! REEN!" Raditz yelled, running towards them in excitement. "I did it! I won!"

"Ah, it's Master Raditz!" Ruddle said, greeting him as he came to a stop in front of them. "How do you do?"

"Hi Raditz!" Reen said, welcoming him with a warm smile. "What's up?"

"I won, Reen! I did it!" Raditz told her in excitement, with his tail wagging from side to side. "I made it to the Round of 16! 3 more wins, and I'll be in the Finals!"

"Ahhh… you're talking about the Arms Tournament, right?" Ruddle asked, referring to the tournament that going on at the Tartaroy Arena. "Congratulations, Master Raditz! Wow, all the way to the Round of 16 in your very first tournament? That is truly impressive!"

"You've made it to that far already? Wow!" Reen said, pleasantly surprised by his news. "That's great, Raditz! You'll make to the finals and win no problem! I know you will!"

"Hehe… thanks guys! I can always use your encouragement…" Raditz said with a smile, proudly going on. "It's been a little disappointing so far, though… everyone I've faced so far were nothing but weaklings… "

"Well, of course. I wouldn't have expected any less!" Reen said. "You're by far the strongest fighter on this planet! I mean, who else here on Roak do you think could defeat all those demons as easily as you did?"

"Yeah, I guess so…" Raditz replied, scratching his head. "I'm not going to get cocky and say that I've already won, but I better win this tournament while I have the chance… cuz Albel and Fayt both said that they were thinking of entering the next year's tournament!"

"Yeah, that should definitely be a tournament to watch! I can't wait until next year!" Reen said, her eyes glittering in anticipation. "Hey… the prize money for the winner is a really big amount, right? Hey, maybe I should enter the next year's tournament, too!"

"Huh? You can't be serious, Miss Reen?" Ruddle asked, looking really worried. "I don't doubt your strength, but it's still going to be really dangerous!"

"W… what? But what if you end up facing one of us?" Raditz wondered, freaking out in knowing that Reen was thinking of entering. "I don't know what I would do I had to fight you in the finals or something… no way!"

"Heehee… Don't worry, guys I was just kidding!" Reen laughed, sticking out her tongue in joking fashion. "I don't really like fighting, anyway… the prize money still sounds nice, though."

"Well, anyway…" Raditz said, turning to Reen with puppy-dog eyes. "You're going to come and watch my matches tomorrow… right, Reen? Remember, you promised!"

"Heehee… of course! I'll be there for sure!" Reen confirmed, smiling back at him. "I'll see you there tomorrow, okay?"

"All right! Thanks! I won't let you down!" Raditz said happily as he turned around to leave, his tail wagging in excitement. "I gotta go for now… see ya tomorrow, then!"

"Ah… Master Raditz… full of energy as always… Anyways, where were we?" Ruddle commented, turning back to Reen to resume their conversation from where they left off. "Oh, right… Master Albel… Don't worry Miss Reen, I'm sure you'll find another man of your dreams one day!"

"Yeah, I guess there are many other guys out there, huh?" Reen said as she waved back to Raditz, who was still waving at her from the distance. "Actually, Raditz is pretty cute too, now that I think about it… don't you think?"

* * *

The Spaceship Lazeria was to arrive at the New Tokyo Space Station on Earth in about 20 minutes time, to drop off all the returning refugees that had to flee the planet during the Demon War. Maria had also asked to be dropped off as well, so that she would finally get the chance to visit her home planet and plan what she would go on to do next. 

"Phew…" Maria sighed, looking out the window and seeing Earth from the distance. "I'm almost there now…" She then sat back down on the chair in her room, and took out a mini-recorder from her pockets to resume recording her memoirs. She clicked on the record button, and started talking once again.

"With Luther defeated, the Daemonium was destroyed and Luther was thwarted in his attempt to return to the 4D space…" Maria talked into the mic of the recorder, recalling back to the journey in her mind. "More importantly, our world, the Eternal Sphere, was granted its eternal freedom from the 4D beings… All Intervention Devices, as well as all symbological genetics codes that were designed to fight with the 4D beings were deleted, thanks to Blair and rest of the programmers from the Sphere Corporation. With all of our genes now no longer in effect, I had finally become a normal human that I've always dreamed of being…"

"Up to now, my purpose in life had been decided by others… to become a living weapon that would one day fight with the creators from 4D space… but with my powers now gone, and with our world now truly independent from the 4D beings, what purpose will I have in this world? What will I do, and where will I go from here?" Maria continued, thinking hard to herself. "Many questions that I had about my life that had been unanswered for many years, have now been answered… However, there is still one major question about myself that I have been unable to answer…"

At that moment, the door to her room slid open as Lieber came walking in. Lieber looked a bit hesitant, scratching his head.

"Cap… I mean, Maria!" Lancar said nervously, looking at Maria. "Do you have a sec? I have something I want to talk to you about!"

"Oh… hi, Lieber…" Maria said, switching off the recorder and getting up to talk to him. "I have to thank you once again in aiding us in our struggle against the Demons… We wouldn't have emerged victorious without the help from all of you. Thanks for everything, Lieber." Maria reached out with her hands, offering to shake Lieber's hand.

"No, it was my pleasure!" Lieber said firmly with a smile, shaking her hand. "I'm just glad I was able to help! Just call me anytime you need me, Maria! I'll come running."

"Thank you… I really appreciate it." Maria said once again, before going back to what Lieber was saying. "So, you wanted to talk to me about something, right? What is it?"

"Maria… I… just want to say that… um…" Lieber mumbled nervously with his head down, his face turning slightly red. "I was wondering if… you… I would… um…"

"What's that? I can't understand you, Lieber… why are you acting all nervous?" Maria asked, not understanding what he was trying to say. "Is it something that I can help with, or something I need to know about? Please, tell me!"

"Um… I…" Lieber tried once again but then finally gave up, his head dropping in shame. "No… it's nothing… it's okay… Maria…"

"Are you sure? It sounded like something important… but if you say so…" Maria shrugged, turning back and slowly heading towards the door. "Well, I should go… we'll be making our landing on earth soon, so I better go get ready. Goodbye, Lieber. I'll see you again."

"W… WAIT!" Lieber yelled, turning to Maria with all his courage. "Yes, there is something I need to tell you! And if I don't, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life!"

"Huh?" Maria quickly turned back, facing Lieber once again in ponder. "Then what is it, Lieber? Please…say it…"

"I… I don't want to let you go!" Lieber said loudly, finally gathering up the courage to say what he had wanted to say for many, many years. "I've always been too afraid to say it, but I'm not going to be afraid anymore! Maria, I want to be with you… and I want to go with you, to wherever you go!"

"H… huh…?" Maria asked in shock, totally thrown off. Maria looked around the room nervously with her face slightly blushing, not knowing what to say. "Wha…? Uh… Um… I…"

"I've always admired you… your personality, your beauty… and everything else about you… over the past 6 years, I've never thought about wanting to be with anyone else…" Lieber continued, pouring his heart out. "And over the last two years… I couldn't get you out of my mind… all I could think about was you! Please, Maria… please let me stay with you…"

"Lieber…" Maria said quietly, lowering her head and looking away. "I'm sorry…"

"No… I'm… I'm sorry for asking… I should have known… sorry… I understand…" Lieber muttered as he quickly turned around from Maria to walk away, totally heartbroken. "A women like you definitely deserves to be a better guy… you don't need to be with… a coward like me…"

"No, Lieber… that's not what I meant…" Maria said, pulling Lieber back before he could leave the room so that she could explain. "I don't think you're a coward… actually, I'm really glad that you let me know about this before it's too late. I like you too, Lieber… and I would really love to have the chance to get to know you better. But it's just that… I have something very important that I must do right now."

"Something important… to do…?" Lieber asked, confused by what she had said. "…What do you mean?"

"There is only one question that have gone unanswered in my life…" Maria explained, turning back with a look of determination in her eyes. "I must search for my real parents. This is something I must do… before it is too late…"

'_Your real parents are still out there somewhere. You must find them.'_ The last words of her foster mother, Jessie, echoed in her mind as Maria explained to Lieber what she was set out to do.

"They are still out there somewhere… I know they are…" Maria said, going on to apologize to him. "Sorry, Lieber… that is why I have to leave. But I won't forget all this, I promise… when I come back, we could…"

"Then… I'll come with you!" Lieber said firmly, with a serious and determined look on his face. "Maria… Please allow me to join you in your quest!"

"Lieber…" Maria mumbled, lost on what to say.

"I don't want to lose you, Maria… I've already lost so much time contemplating what it could have been… From now on, I want to stay by your side, and cherish every single moment that I spend with you!" Lieber yelled, becoming more and more emotional. "And there is no telling what could happen to you in your journey… whatever danger you will face, and any obstacles you may come upon… let's face them together, Maria! Please let me become your strength!"

"Lieber…" Maria mumbled as she threw herself into Lieber's arms, overcome with emotion. "Thank you…"

* * *

From the green open fields behind the Castle Aquaria, repeated noises of sharp grunts and battle cries could be heard echoing throughout the town. "HIYA! HA! HWAA!" It was Tynave and Farleen sparring with Nel, both sides ferociously attacking each other and not giving an inch. Tynave was engaged in a hand-to-hand combat with Nel in the air, both parrying and blocking each other's lightning-quick attacks. 

"HIYA! SHOOTING STARS!" Tynave yelled, as she suddenly threw a flurry of dozen powerful punches at Nel. "Ugh…!" Nel grunted as few of the punches ended up getting through her defenses, hitting her in the midsection. Nel quickly did a back flip in the air to create space from Tynave, stunned from her attacks.

"FIRE BOLT!" Farleen used that moment to execute her Firebolt spell, unleashing three balls of fire to home in on Nel and knock her out of the air. "AHH!" Nel yelled in pain, getting nailed precisely with all the fireballs. Nel started dropping down towards the ground, looking as if she had been knocked out for good.

"Yes! We got her this time!" Farleen yelled victoriously to Tynave, pumping her fist in the air in triumph. "Tynave! We've finally beaten her!"

"F… Farleen!" Tynave yelled back with a sweatdrop, knowing how Farleen's track record was with these things. "Y… you didn't have to say that so fast…"

Surely enough, right before she hit the ground, Nel flipped back up into the air to jump towards Tynave again, nailing her with an elbow to the midsection. "UGH!" Tynave grunted in pain, as Nel quickly appeared behind her to hit her subordinate right down towards Farleen with a diving thrust kick.

"OH NO!" Farleen yelled in despair as Tynave's falling body fell right on top of her, to knock both of them out of commission. Nel landed back on the ground beside the two, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Tynave! Farleen! NEVER, ever act with such overconfidence in battle! Both of you dropped your guard right there!" Nel yelled imposingly in criticism as her two subordinates slowly struggled back up in pain. "An enemy can use that chance to mount their counterattack! Do not give an inch and never let up… you must keep fighting until you are absolutely sure that your enemy is defeated! Understood?"

"Y… yes, Lady Nel… owwwww…" Farleen mumbled, holding her neck in pain as she got back up. "And we were so close, too!"

"Ugh… I told you, Farleen…" Tynave muttered, holding her back in pain. "Whenever you say things like that, something bad always happens! You must have the worst luck the world when it comes to these things!"

"HEY! Don't say that! Why does everyone think that I'm bad luck?" Farleen yelled back at Tynave, a little ticked off. "Errrrrrr… it's so frustrating when everyone calls me that!"

"There was no luck involved… you both simply dropped your guards, and I used that moment to take you down. That's all." Nel said, with her arms crossed. "Although I do have to say that both of you have improved tremendously in your skills recently…"

"Really, Lady Nel? Have we really both improved?" Farleen asked, encouraged by her comments. "Do you think we're both going to be able to pass our exams, and finally become the full-fledged member of the Crimson Blade?"

"Yes… I hate to say it, but the two of you almost had me beat right there. If you had never let up, I probably would have lost..." Nel said, being 100 honest with them. "You two have indeed become much stronger after that mission… it must have been because of all the first-hand fighting experience you were able to get. As long as you keep focused and not make mistakes like the one you just made… then yes, I think both of you will be able to pass the exam with ease."

"Really? T… thank you, Lady Nel!" Tynave said, bowing to Nel in respect. "We will both make sure that we maintain our focus at all times! We won't let you down!"

"Wow… thank you for having so much confidence in us, Lady Nel!" Farleen also said as she bowed, her eyes full of excitement. "It's always been my dream to become the part of the legendary Crimson Blade just like you and Lady Clair… now that wish may finally come true!"

"Yes. With Airyglyph now becoming a part of our sacred kingdom, we are really in need of more young, capable warriors like yourselves." Nel commented, turning to the two to give them a nod. "Keep up your good work. I wish the best of luck to both of you."

"I still can't believe how our two countries are now reunited…" Tynave said in thought, recalling back to everything that happened between the two countries in the past. "I mean, it was only three years ago when we were at each other's throats in that war…"

"Well, I'm glad that the threat of war is now gone…" Farleen commented. "I think both Aquarians and Glyphians alike have realized that we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves over petty matters anymore… especially when there is a much bigger world besides our own out there."

"That's right. We all need to co-operate and turn this world into a one in which everyone can be proud of." Nel agreed, as she turned towards the two to ask them a question. "Anyways, I have something I need to talk to Clair about… I must go. Have you two seen her around?"

"Oh… Lady Clair?" Tynave replied, scratching her head. "She's not in the Castle right now… and I don't think she will be back for a while…"

"Yeah, I think she went out to see 'you know who'… heehee…" Farleen giggled.

"Oh…" Nel said, putting a hand over her forehead and shaking her head. "Again?"

"Yes…" Tynave confirmed, looking a bit worried. "She should really be careful… if she keeps sneaking out like this, her majesty is going to find out about it sooner or later!"

"Haha… no… I think her majesty will understand as well…" Nel laughed, shrugging her shoulders. "You just can't keep those two apart. I'm glad, though… I've never seen Clair as happy as she is now. I'm really happy for her..."

"Yeah, me too!" Tynave said with a smile, turning to Nel. "You know what, Lady Nel… I think it's about time that you've found someone special, too!"

"Yeah!" Farleen agreed, remembering something that she wanted to talk to Nel about. "Actually, there is this one high-ranked soldier in the Dragon Brigade that we talked to… and we found out that he has feelings for you, Lady Nel! He's really hot, too… So how about it? Would you like to meet him?"

"W… wha…?" Nel mumbled nervously as she quickly looked away, her face slightly blushing. "Do… do not worry about me. I'm just fine the way I am and I plan to stay this way… furthermore, I have many duties and missions that I must undertake… I have no time for such things!"

"Awww… you're no fun, Lady Nel!" Farleen joked, pulling on Nel's arm and dragging her away. "Come on… aren't you kind of jealous of Lady Clair, too?"

"Yeah, we want you to be happy too, Lady Nel!" Tynave said with a smile, pulling Nel along. "Come with us! He's a really nice guy… I think you two will be perfect for each other! Let's go!"

* * *

"Wow…" Sophia said as she walked out from the Grantier Hotel in Hyda IV, heading out towards the private beach. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with the sand on the beach glittering from the warm sunshine that was coming down from the clear blue sky. "Fayt! Hurry! You've got to check this out… it's so nice out here!" 

"Okay Sophia… I'm coming!" Fayt said with a sweatdrop, being forcefully dragged along by Sophia. "You don't have to hurry so much… it's not like we have to go somewhere soon or anything… geez…"

"Isn't this amazing, Fayt?" Sophia asked, admiring the deep blue ocean waves coming into the shores of the beach "It seems like it's been forever since we've had a chance to relax at a place like this!"

"Well, 3 years to be exact, I guess." Fayt said, thinking back to the last time they were here, before the Vendeeni attack. "It's truly amazing they were able to rebuilt this resort just as how it was before… it feels like we've never left this place!"

"That's right…" Sophia said, her face suddenly turning serious. "Now that I think about it… this is the place where it all started… Hyda…"

"Yeah." Fayt said, remembering back to everything that had happened to them over the last 3 years. "So much have happened since then… it's kind of ironic how his place haven't changed a bit, when we went through so many changes ourselves…

"Yeah… we found out so many things about ourselves..." Sophia agreed, looking out into the ocean and getting lost in thought. "And you know what, it feels so weird to think back to everything that has happened… because when I stand here… I feel just like how I did 3 years ago, as if it all never happened at all. "

"Me too… now that I think about it, it's still pretty hard to for me to believe that we were living weapons that were developed in order to fight against our creators…" Fayt said, staring at his hands. "Maybe my mind is trying to unconsciously deny that the whole thing ever happened… I don't know. I mean, there were many, many traumatic moments that we went through as well…"

"Maybe… but even so, we still shouldn't just forget all about it. I mean, moving on is one thing, but completely denying what happened in your past is another…" Sophia turned to Fayt, talking in a serious tone. "We should never forget about all the good things that happened to us, like being able to meet all our friends, and all the important life lessons that we learned along the way…"

"You're right… we should remember all the good and important things that had happen to us. But at the same time, we have move on with our lives, too" Fayt smiled back at Sophia with an assuring look, thinking back to Cliff, Nel, Albel, Clair, and every single one of his valuable friends that he was able to meet throughout his adventures. "At least our destinies aren't predecided by others any longer… we're both normal human beings now just like everyone else on Earth, thanks to Blair and the rest… we should make most of this opportunity and live our lives to the fullest like how we want it to!"

"Yeah… you're right! This is our chance to start all over again!" Sophia said, as she suddenly turned to Fayt with an interesting idea in her mind. "Hey… then how about this? How about we just continue on from where we left off from here 3 years ago!"

"Good idea, Sophia!" Fayt agreed, scratching his head in thought. "So… uh… where were we, anyway?"

"Oh! I remember now!" Sophia smiled brightly, as she pulled on his arm to drag him back towards the Hotel. "You said you were going to go shopping with me! Heehee… then let's go, Fayt! Remember… you promised!"

"Eh… uh… wait! Wait a minute!" Fayt mumbled with a sweatdrop, trying to somehow find his way out of it. "Weren't we in the Battle Simulator, actually…?"

* * *

It was a bright and sunny early afternoon in the ever-beautiful Palmira Plains. Albel stood on the east edge of the cliff, watching the crystal clear water of the sea flowing gently all the way out as far as he could see in front of him. While Albel was lost in thought, Clair came running in from the entrance of Peterny, meeting him at where they had promised. 

"Sorry I'm late, Albel…" Clair apologized, a little bit out of breath. "I had lot of things to take care of first… but I tried to make it here as soon as I can!"

"Heh… it's all that administrative work which held you up, isn't it? The boring stuff?" Albel asked, with a little amused grin on his face. "Anyways, it's funny how you're the one who called me out to be here and I ended up being the one doing the waiting… what's up with that, Lady Clair?"

"Haha… I'm sorry Albel… I really am." Clair smiled, apologizing to him once again. "I wasn't _too_ late, was I?"

"Yeah… don't worry, I was just joking with you…" Albel said, looking back out to the sea. "As long as you're here with me now… that is enough."

"Um hmm…" Clair said, turning around to admire the beautiful sea in front of her. "This is… beautiful. Don't you think, Albel?"

"The place is quite relaxing, that's for sure." Albel agreed, suddenly remembering something and reaching for the small box that he had brought with him. "Oh, by the way, I got something for you..."

"Hmm? What is it Albel? A… gift? You didn't need to…" Clair said, blushing a little and also reaching back for a gift of her own. "I mean, I had something for you too, but…"

"Huh? Come on now, you know I don't like getting presents…" Albel muttered, hesitant in accepting her present.

"Open it, Albel! Please…" Clair begged, urging Albel to open his present "You'll like it… I promise."

"Ughh… fine… I'm serious… you can be so forceful at times…" Albel sighed, opening the tiny gift box. "Huh… How…? This is…" The present was an old, small music box, the same one that he had received from Simone at Portmis during his journey.

"It's your mother's music box…" Clair told him, explaining how she got a hold of it. "I know it was broken during your fight against Luther… so I took it from your room and went to get it fixed it for you, because I know you would never ask for someone to fix it for you yourself… sorry about that."

"No… thank you, Clair." Albel thanked her, opening the music box to hear the beautiful melody from his memory come out from it. "I'm really glad to have it. All my life I wondering who my mother was, but I was finally able to find out… and music box here is a proof of her existence…"

"And it's the proof of her love for you, too." Clair said, gazing into Albel's eyes. "That's why I knew I had to go get it fixed for you."

"Thank you…" Albel nodded with a little smile, thanking her again for her present. "Oh right… I got something for you too, remember? Here." Albel said, extending his hand to offer Clair his gift. Clair opened the box, to discover something very familiar to her as well.

"This is… Palmira's Wishing Charm?" Clair asked, holding up the mini flower charm. "But… why?"

"You dropped it during the fight against Luther, remember? Since you happened to be so careless and lose it, I had to go get another one for you." Albel said jokingly, turning around to look away. "…So make sure you don't go dropping this one around, got that?"

"Thank you Albel…" Clair said, throwing herself in Albel's arms to give him a warm hug. "I love it."

"…" Albel hugged her back, thinking for a bit then asking her a question. "Clair…?"

"…Yes?" Clair asked, with her arms still around Albel's waist and her face gently snuggling up to his chest. "What is it?"

"Did you really wish for me to win, that time?" Albel asked, remembering back to his one-on-one duel with Luther back at the Time and Space Lab. "Do you think that this charm actually granted your wishes…? Or do you think it was all by pure luck…"

"Of course it did… it was able to save your life… that was exactly what I wished for at the time." Clair looked up to smile at him, assuring him that that was her wish. "And there were other things I wished for as well… and they all came true, too!"

"Other things?" Albel asked, curious. "What might that be?"

"This…" Clair said quietly, closing her eyes and cuddling up to Albel once again. "This moment…"

"…" Albel returned the hug quietly, thinking for a bit and remembering back to her words from Roak...

"_What I simply want… is this moment. Me just being out here, breathing cool fresh air, enjoying being under a warm sun, surrounded by sea… with nothing but peace and quiet… this simple moment is what I want, and nothing else." _

This was indeed, the very moment that she spoke of.

"Now that I think about it, I don't need another wishing charm, Albel…" Clair said, as she smiled back at him and returned the charm. "Because all my wishes have already come true."

"Well, in that case…" Albel said after being in thought for a while, looking into the sky. "I suppose I can make a wish on it, instead… for both you and me…"

"Huh?" Clair asked in curiosity. "And what might your wish be?"

"Haha… I can't tell you…" Albel laughed a little, with a little shrug. "You can't tell anyone of your wishes, or else it won't come true, remember? I thought you would know… it's an Aquarian legend, after all…"

"Oh, right… Haha… that's true." Clair chuckled, looking up deep into his eyes and smiling. "Well, then I hope you'll be able to tell me about it, someday..."

"Hmm… now that I think about it, I don't think I'll ever be able to tell you… even if it comes true…" Albel commented, thinking of his wish. "But don't worry… that's a good thing in this case."

'_I want this to last… forever…'_

**THE END **

_**THANKS FOR READING!**_


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